War Machines
by friendlyquark
Summary: The thread has been cut and the sword of Damocles has fallen. Faced with new dangers and choices that none of them imagined they would have to make, the Meta-Crises Doctor, Rose, Susan, Koschei, and the Pete's World crew set off to save the universe, wondering how much it will cost them this time. by FriendlyQuark and Time Lady Jen.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Pawns and Knights

The White Guardian leaned back and nodded slowly. He was pleased with his last move. The Black Guardian was frowning, thinking through his strategy, and it was obvious that he hadn't expected the sudden appearance on the board of another knight.

The pawns were in play and while he couldn't say that he was feeling overly confident, he was certainly hopeful.

For the last twenty moves the board had been going steadily towards the black, but the White Guardian brought his King into play, hoping that once more he could change the tide of battle.

"You use him far too much," the Black Guardian scolded.

"He's effective, you must admit," he replied and his opponent frowned, shifting uneasily in his seat. The King was effective, too much so for the Black Guardian's peace of mind.

Between them, the chessboard showed images from every point in the multiverse. Savage wars, gentle songs of peace, the full range of life, death, joy, and sorrow.

"She'll burn that Bishop out one day," the Black Guardian warned, "You're playing with fire there."

"Perhaps, but I will take my chances," the White Guardian replied. In truth, it was his main worry right now. He watched his opponent as he pulled a tiny silver insect forward.

"Fine, then let's see how they deal with this, eh?" he chuckled and leaned back.

The White Guardian frowned, but it was a legal move, he could not protest it. He reached out and shifted his own pieces.

"Very Well."

* * *

"He's awake," Susan sighed out, looking stricken. "I can feel his mind, very faintly. There is a lot of pain and darkness in him." She fell silent for a moment. "It's awful." She was shaking as she spoke, eyes filling up, but she wiped her tears away with angry haste, frowning fiercely.

"A bit sooner than I had expected, and I am sorry," Adie replied with a shiver of fear She was terrified of what the Master would do to her, if he ever got ahold of her again. She scolded herself for that, the clones had suffered so much more, she was ashamed to be worried about her own fate when others needed her help so desperately.

"There's more," Adie told them and sat down on the hospital bed.

Susan tapped the wall controls and a couch and several chairs built themselves rapidly. With an expression of iron resolution, she settled onto a green velvet settee, with Koschei beside her, his arm around her waist, the two of them holding on to each other, with wary expressions.

"Right, go ahead," Susan said through gritted teeth, while Koschei just watched her with a painfully neutral expression.

"At the time of his demise," she told Koschei, addressing him, because it was almost too hard to look at Susan right then. "Your counterpart was heading up a project titled the Lens of Rassilon."

"I remember that project," he blurted, looking surprised. "I proposed it to the High Council, but they rejected it, said it was too expensive." Another point of divergence, Adie thought to herself. Unless they had rejected it when first proposed and then pulled it out of mothballs later, when circumstances had changed? She wasn't sure.

"Is this what Masha is wired into?" Susan asked, looking worried.

"Yes, her and the other clones," Adie explained, since Koschei was just sitting there, looking unhappy, mouth clamped down hard.

"Cloned from you," Susan commented and Adie nodded.

"The Rani gave me the idea," Koschei groaned. "We had a conversation, after I stopped her from 'experimenting' on some of the Glurpitup Tribe."

"The biological units were considered a necessity because the configuration was heavily based upon Block Transfer Mathematics. No mechanical construct, no matter how cleverly made, could have survived the required Computation," she explained.

"Right, that makes sense," Susan nodded. "If you ignore all the various ethical considerations." Koschei flushed and Adie continued, looking at him, feeling a certain grim unhappiness at what she knew she was going to have to ask him to do.

"Koschei, all of the controls are isometric. That means that the only two people who can handle the controls are you… and him," Adie told him, hoping that if she eased him into it, he might stop looking at her with that broken expression.

"Me and my needlessly complicated plots," he groaned and tried to smile. It was a brave effort, even if a somewhat weak one. "We'd better get the Doctor and Rose in on this, love." Susan nodded her agreement, though she didn't look like she was happy about it.

"This is going to be a delightful conversation," she snarked. "Grandfather, your old best mate is about, only he's off his nut again, care to help us deal with that?" Koschei flinched slightly. She shot him an apologetic look and stroked his cheek with her hand. "Sorry, love, I know this is hard on you too."

"Hard on me?" he asked and looked at her in surprise. "I think it's going to be hardest on you."

"I am afraid it will be hard on everyone," Adie told them, trying to be gentle. She did vaguely recall gentleness, though it was long ago since she she'd actually experienced any herself.

* * *

The Doctor looked up from where he was changing Jamie's nappies and frowned. He was kneeling on the floor of the living room, while Jamie was holding his stuffed shobogon tightly, watching him with a drool-filled grin. Rose was on one of the couches, knees up and head down over her tablet, while Donna was sitting on another couch, reading the latest Terry Pratchett and chuckling.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked and he looked over at her. Their bond was growing stronger over time and she had apparently picked up his spike of alarm. She had been working out the equations for the TARDIS corals and her face was still scrunched up in thought.

"Susan... has news for us," he told her and sent her the download with a wince.

"Bloody hell!" she shot back and they jumped up.

"Is that a request for Aunty Donna to take over and spoil little Jamie rotten?" Donna asked in a cooing voice as she, put down her book and went to pick up the one and a half year old. She cuddled him and he gave her a grin and a huge smile. Unlike his sister, Jamie rarely spoke much. He could, but simply chose not to. The Doctor wasn't sure if it was because he despaired of getting a word in edgewise, or if because every need of his was satisfied without ever having to ask.

"If it wouldn't be too great an imposition on you, Donna, yes, please," the Doctor chuckled.

"Come on young man, let's go have fun without them," Donna told him with a huge grin and carried him off gleefully.

"I get the feeling that we are entirely superfluous here," the Doctor murmured to his wife, who nodded in agreement.

"Then, we should go where we are needed," she suggested.

* * *

"Koschei, I know that you owe me nothing, but I need your help," Adie told him, wringing her hands. "Once the Master awakens he can take over the Lens again. He can hit a button and all the clones could be killed instantly, or he could decide to purge their personalities, or anything else he wants to do. He has all the equipment directly at hand," she explained, her voice shaking.

"He could kill Masha?" Koschei asked and Adie nodded. "What do you want me to do?" He looked up at her, blue eyes blazing, and she felt something in her relaxing. He was willing to help, which was one obstacle she'd navigated.

"What I want you to do, is to take it away from him. Stop him from destroying them. It's going to be difficult, because while you can log in remotely via a secondary system, it won't have the same rapid response, or the full range of capabilities, of the equipment he'll be using in his lab."

"You keep saying them, the clones, plural, how many are there?" Susan asked.

"The Project required seventy-six," she explained and the ginger haired doctor looked startled by the number.

Martha came in again just then and looked around at them all in concern. She was carrying another tray of food, which she put down next to Susan and Koschei.

"Neither of you has eaten yet, either," she pointed out and Koschei smiled sadly up at her.

"My appetite seems to have fled," he told her and she settled into a chair, looking at him in concern.

"Adie," Susan murmured gently. "What exactly was the project, you haven't explained."

"It was a weapon for the War," Koschei cut in. "The idea was to seed clones on worlds the Daleks controlled, that's why they had to be made so tough,because they had to survive on Dalek-held worlds for days or even months. Then, if the High Council decided the world couldn't be taken back, the clone would be used to destroy that world," he told them, head down, obviously still deeply ashamed, which startled Adie. Even though she had intellectually grasped his reform, the reality was taking longer for her to process. He fell silent, unable to continue, and Adie took over again.

"The basic premise was to concentrate a tremendous amount of energy through a biological focal point. I was never permitted to see how it would be done, but I do know that as long as Masha is here, she could be used as the focus to destroy this planet."

"So, you're saying that Masha isn't a supersoldier of some sort, she's a bomb?" Susan asked, her face horrified and Koschei shook his head.

"No, she's a focus, for the weapon," he told her, face twisting in distress. "Any of them can be the focus. I had planned on using them for Dalek-controlled worlds only, but Rassilon's contribution was to have them be made to look like young girls, to be friendly and kind, so that people will like them and take them in. He wanted a way to destroy any allied world that might try to leave the Alliance as well as the Dalek-controlled planets. People would befriend them, never knowing they were protecting the means to their own destruction."

"That's horrible!" Martha blurted out and Koschei nodded.

"Yes, it is," he sighed.

"And you invented it?" she asked, eyeing him.

"I was a mind controlled puppet of Rassilon at the time," Koschei told her. "Not that that excuses anything," he added.

"No, I've seen movies, mind-control is actually a valid excuse," Martha assured him. The Time Lords all paused to stare at her for a moment.

"Th-thank you, Martha," Koschei stuttered, and his expression seemed torn between being genuinely touched and terribly amused.

"I thought the project was never approved," Susan asked him and he nodded. "Then how do you know all this?"

"Rassilon approached me later to talk about it... theoretically," he told them. "It was right before he sent me to the Cruciform the first time. After the Tower, when I failed him there, he sent me away and the matter was dropped." He smiled at Susan and this smile was genuine. "You changed history, love." Adie nodded, seeing clearly now the pivot point. This is why the Golden Lady had spoken to her, to achieve the universe she was in right now. In her own memories, she had failed, but obviously in that one she had managed it. It occurred to her that success had cost her her life. Her other self had died with Gallifrey. She shivered.

"We changed it together, my hearts," she told him and held his hand tightly in hers.

"That's very romantic," Martha interrupted. "But what happened to this 'project' of yours?" she asked and Adie picked up the thread of conversation again with a frown. They were heading into areas where her knowledge was scanty.

"It was built and then, for some reason, Rassilon decided not to implement it. The project was mothballed, if you will," she explained. "The clones were all made, prepped and programmed… and we were shut down. Literally overnight." She stood up and started pacing, feeling again the old familiar confusion and despair. "I'm not sure why, but it was as if we were just… forgotten. One day we were this bustling project and then suddenly everything was tucked away on a shelf and we were just left there."

"Inside a Temporal Grace Point, you said," Susan reminded her and Koschei looked at her with some chagrin.

"I figured out a way to use the Matrix to 'store' people's timelines so that they could be 'recalled' when needed," he told them. "The problem was that you needed to restore them in a Temporal Grace Point, someplace where probability was so twisted that two possible futures could exist at the exact same time, side by side, without tearing Time apart." Susan was staring at him and shook her head slowly. "My paradox engine was a crude and rather brute force approach to the same issue."

"Oh my brilliant man, that is both genius and utterly awful," she murmured and he nodded.

"I'll take your word for that," Martha told her. "Sounds like voodoo to me." Koschei just shrugged at her and continued.

"That project was shelved as well, the prototype nearly blew out the Probability Shunts that the Doctor and Rassilon had put together to try to combat the Never-weres," he explained and Susan shuddered. Whatever they were, the very mention of the Never-weres made her look utterly terrified for a moment, before she had herself back behind her mask of calm. "It was decided that it was too dangerous. Obviously, in the other timeline, I.. he... must have gotten it working, because that is the only way that two of us can possibly exist in the same universe at the same time."

"So, will he integrate into you?" Susan asked with a hopeful look.

"No," he answered gently and her face went back to being mask-like. "Malla did the Block Transfer Calculations for me on this, though she hated it and me for that, and determined that after a 'period of stabilization', about four months or so, the alternate would diverge sufficiently from the original to allow for them to continue on in that timeline. He's been in cold storage for a lot longer than that, so it's too late for him to integrate back into the timeline and be one of my memories," he told her. "There are now two of me and there isn't any way to change that." He sounded unhappy about it, but Susan's face gave nothing away.

"I see," was all she said.

"The Project has been running for almost two centuries," Adie broke in. "Just before the Master was nearly killed, the clones had been put in time Loops, which were meant to be training sims for them. They were never meant to be kept in them for any length of time though, and I couldn't get them out because the controls only responded to the Master. Now, the Mobius points are collapsing. I have been struggling to keep them open, at least enough to allow the girls to jump from point to point, if one fell apart. For all their indestructible natures, there are things that they can't survive and a Mobius collapse is one of them. Now that I am not there to keep it all going, I doubt he will maintain the points. He'll see no reason to. After all, the equipment is all there for him to…" She spat out the words, hating the very sound of them, "... to run off another copy if he loses one."

"Right! So save everyone and stop the Master, exactly what I'm best at!" a new voice announced. Adie, who had been on edge anyway, just about jumped right out of her skin as the new Time Lord suddenly came bounding in. He was tall and skinny, in a pinstriped suit and blue trainers, his face long and narrow, his hair stuck up everywhere and he was a supernova of energy and bright intelligence.

"'Ello! I'm the Doctor!" he told her and pumped her hand enthusiastically, then gestured behind him to a blonde woman with brown eyes and a wide smile, her energy curiously doubled and echoing. "This is my wife, Rose," he introduced and Adie bowed formally.

"It is an honour and a privilege to meet you," she said in formal Gallifreyan.

"None of that now, young lady," he scolded, but his eyes were merry and his smile broad. "We got rid of all of that nonsense when the planet got destroyed. No point in Houses and that, when there's only about sixty of us left, after all," he told her and she felt the slight wince of pain from the assembled Time Lords, the Doctor included, as he said that.

Adie had not known that their numbers were so few. Had thought, until the last twenty minutes, that Gallifrey had been well and whole. It was the first time she had heard the number and it was as if she had been impaled in the chest; but she didn't have time to indulge in grief just then.

"I… understand," she said simply.

"Right, now, Susan tells me that we have a deadline here," he informed her, clapping his hands together. "So, I say we charge out and save the day, but I suspect that Koschei and Susan will overrule me and demand a plan, so let's save some time and come up with one, eh?" he suggested and flopped into a chair, his wife settling into one beside him.

"I suppose our plan would have to start with me getting remote control of the Lens," Koschei sighed out, looking unhappy about it. "Then we have to rescue the girls from the Mobius Loops, which will be tricky, we'll need two TARDISes."

That was another unexpected harpoon through the hearts; it hadn't occurred to her that there might not be two left. She did not allow the distress to cross her face or her aura, but closed her eyes for a moment.

"Is Romana going to be back soon, we can use hers," Rose put in and the Doctor shrugged.

"The Shadow Proclamation has her putting out fires in the Traken Union right now, and you know how that lot can natter on," the Doctor sighed.

"What about Hedia?" Susan asked.

"Left ages ago, said something about going hub-wards and working her way around to the rim, but she's well out of range right now," the Doctor explained with a shrug.

"The points are booby trapped, by the way," Adie said.

"Of course they are, that is classic Master," the Doctor told her with a jovial tone that she suddenly realized was artfully masking the deep pain he was feeling. He quickly shifted to shield himself in a swirling cloud of good humour and light spirits, but she'd glimpsed the deep, unending sorrow under it all, if only for a fraction of a second.

"Finally," Adie continued. "The project has changed since the time you first proposed it. By the time I was brought onto the project, the destructive capabilities of the Lens were no longer viewed as its primary purpose. The focusing abilities of the clones were viewed as supporting infrastructure for the actual purpose. Unfortunately, I was never able to learn what the true purpose was."

"I'll have to assume that the Master has given up on monologues? He used to be wonderful for bragging all about his plans. How inconvenient of him to change at this late stage," the Doctor teased and Koschei shot him a slightly annoyed look.

"Oh now, Doctor," Rose chuckled. "No plan, no idea, and no time? This is all quite normal for us!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Bad News

Adie cast her eyes over the room. Koschei and Susan were sitting next to each other on the sofa, their energy wrapped tightly about each other, while the Doctor sat sprawled in a chair, idly grabbing one of the cookies and popping it in his mouth, while Rose took a cup of tea, sitting Indian style in hers. Susan and Koschei looked worried, but the Doctor and Rose both looked excited and happy, as though death, mayhem, and tragedy were a fun day's outing for them.

Adie was a bit taken aback by that, and then something occurred to her.  
"I have a question, how did you get into the remote relay station, Koschei?" she asked, wondering how he'd even known about it.

"We were trying to give Masha a check-up and she started shouting about "2" being the key," Susan explained. "So, Koschei thought it might help to map her network, see what was going on."

"Bumbling about as usual," the Doctor told her with a grin.

"Has that Masha taken a number for herself?" Adie asked curiously.

"37," Koschei told her.

"Ah," Adie said, because that explained everything. "Sounds like our Rat was at it again.. Which is another problem."

"Rat?" Rose squeaked. "I don' like rats!" She grabbed at the Doctor's arm and looked unnerved.

"It's just a nickname," she replied and Rose relaxed and nodded. She paced back and forth for a moment, trying to think how she wanted to explain. "In the beginning of the Project, one clone was upgraded, designed to be the main network hub."

"A hub? Why did they want a hub?" the Doctor asked, propping his head on his fist and looking up at her with interest.

"Two reasons," Adie said. "In the original configuration, the lens couldn't be aimed, except through a clone and the power would burn the clones up as well. You could only use it once before having to run off new clones," She hated what she was saying, but there was no help for it, they had to know. "With a hub, it could not only be aimed, but it could also be fired an unlimited number of times without burning up the clones. They upgraded a clone, boosting her intelligence significantly."

"How much?" Susan interrupted. "How far did they push her mind?" Her eyes were sharply focused and her face was set in a frown of concern. "That's a dangerous area to play in."

"They wanted to get as close to a Time Lord mind, while still keeping the clone at the level as the others."

"Great Stars, the poor child," Susan gasped out. "Masha's body and a Time Lord's mind? She must be perpetually on the edge of burning up!" The Doctor especially looked appalled at the idea.

"Yes, in fact cooling was one of the big challenges, but when I was brought in, I was designated the new central focal point." She frowned. "If I'd been a clone, I'd have been 2, she must have figured that out somehow." She shook her head. "She was sent out just as they all were." She rubbed her neck awkwardly. "At which point she began to make trouble."

"Which is not at all surprising," Susan chided. "Whoever planned that bit just wasn't thinking straight at all." Adie nodded her agreement and then sighed.

"Who would occupy the first slot?" the Doctor asked suddenly. "Why are you '2', instead of '1'?,"

"I never could figure that out. As far as planning, I had the impression of a political power struggle just after the clone was upgraded. I wish I knew what had gone on," Adie sighed out, frowning at the floor as she thought.

"My Mum, no doubt," the Doctor murmured. "She was constantly working quietly to undermine Rassilon's more dotty plans and she was on the Inner Council. She might have buggered about with things, hoping to slow him down."

"At any rate, it wasn't surprising to me that she caused trouble. I was, however, caught quite off guard at the way in which she managed it. She hacked her own engine."

She had expected the gasps that went around the room. The engine was very delicately balanced, and hacking it was playing with fire, but she hadn't expected the Doctor to grin like a loon and clap his hands.

"Bravo!" he crowed.

"She gained absolute control over her own system. I personally saw the Master try to use the kill command on her five times and fail. She's set up false node signals so that she can't be traced, she's hacked the White Road… I will say, however, this is the first time I have heard of her hacking another of the clones." She shook her head. "The Master gave her the nickname of "Rat" because she was running through the walls, chewing on the wires."

"No doubt doing what she can to circumvent the Master," the Doctor murmured, his eyes alight with glee. "She sounds delightful! We should find her, wrap her up in a bow, and give her to Dar for Christmas!" he chortled, looking like a child being offered a new toy.

"Who is Dar?" Adie frowned.

"Captain Darginian, last surviving agent of the Celestial Intervention Agency and currently the entirety of the Gallifreyan Intelligence Service, it's just him and a rather overwhelmed AI, poor devil," the Doctor told her. "Lovely fellow, suspicious of everyone, even himself."

"Can he still fire the lens without the focal point?" Koschei asked her next.

"Yes, I'm afraid, but that is all I can tell you." She was unhappy about that, she'd tried for nearly two hundred years to ferret out the secrets of the project and still felt as though she'd learned next to nothing.

"A lot more than we knew before, my dear!" the Doctor told her with a smile and a pat on her hand. "Now, we have to do all that boring planning stuff, but first I was hoping to borrow Masha, if you don't mind? I have gotten word from the Shadow Proclamation of a problem on the Academy Planet and I was hoping that Masha could come out and play with us!"

"Grandfather, she's not a toy!" Susan scolded, but her lips were twitching.

"But, knowing her, she'd probably enjoy it," Koschei told him and he smiled a bit.

"Good! How long before the Master can fire up the engines on that oh-so-egocentrically-named project?" the Doctor asked Adie, eyes twinkling and face spreading into a Cheshire cat smile.

"He could at any time, but he's certainly going to want to run a diagnostic first, and then likely some clean-up," she replied, thinking hard. Koschei nodded his agreement with her assessment.

"Which would take how long?" the Doctor pressed.

"We safely have a day." She paused. "Are you going to tell her that she is, in essence, a walking bomb?"

"I always believe in telling people the truth," the Doctor assured her with an airy wave.

"Which doesn't mean he'll actually tell the truth, just that he believes he ought to," Susan clarified and the Doctor looked annoyed.

"Fine, I'll explain that she's a walking bomb," he groused. "Ruin all her fun, why don't you?" He put his hands on his hips and looked cross.

"In the meantime, how may I be of assistance?" Adie asked, trying to keep focused on the main problem and not let the Doctor distract her with his silliness.

"You can help me figure out how to get control of the Lens," Koschei sighed. "I have to figure out a way to protect Masha, I don't want her to be... rewritten by him, she's happy as she is."

"I will be glad to explain everything I can," Adie agreed and he looked up at her, his eyes troubled.

"Whatever he did to you and to them, for what it's worth, I'm sorry," he told her and she didn't gape at him only because she was so shocked. There is no way that the Master would ever have apologized and she knew then, that this one was very different.

"It wasn't your fault, Koschei. I don't blame you," she told him and realized that was true. He was throwing all her previous ideas about the Master into disarray, but she could see his basic decency quite clearly and it was changing everything for her.

"I remember what I did, how I was, when I thought Susan was dead," he murmured and clutched his wife's hand tightly. The Doctor's face froze over, as though the memory of it was too awful to keep at bay with his usual smile. Only Rose and Martha looked unaffected, just looking at the others with compassion. "I can't imagine what he must have been like after losing her. I mean, I don't really want to think about it." he shivered.

"Cold," Adie told him, her mind filling up with memories. The Master staring at her as though she barely registered. The Master's icy contempt cutting at her. The frozen core of his energy, like a star made of snow and ice. "Binary. Off or on: Yes or No. No shades of gray. And nothing warm. He treated the clones like they weren't even real."

Koschei and Susan looked as though each word was a physical blow.

"Omega," she whispered and Adie paused.

"Could you do me a favour?" Koschei asked her and she tensed.

"What would you ask of me?" she asked cautiously.

"Could you please call them the 'people' or something, even the 'Mashas' would be better than just 'the clones'," he explained, looking somewhat sheepish.

"'The Mashas' would be accurate," Adie admitted. "They were all run off of a Multiple Automaton Semi-Humanoid Assembler. I will be glad to change my wording."

"Thank you," he sighed out. "We'll have to have them choose names at some point," he mused.

"Great, now that that is taken care of, off on a Bug Hunt with Masha and Jake for me!" the Doctor interrupted. "I think I will spread the joy around and invite Andred and Leela as well!" he announced, like he was handing out candy to children.

"How magnanimous of you, Doctor," Martha teased and rolled her eyes. "Right, clinic to run! Don't forget to actually eat your food, Adie!" she reminded her and headed out.

"I better get back up to the Line House," Rose sighed. "It's just about time to feed Jamie," she told them, kissed the Doctor, and headed out.

* * *

The Doctor peered into the Torchwood lounge and grinned broadly at Jake and Masha, where they were perched on plastic chairs. Jake had been showing her the joys of the vending machines and she had gathered a large assortment of crisps of various kinds.

"Oh God," Jake groaned, spotting the Doctor's beaming face looking at them. "Here we go again!"

"Excuse me?" Masha asked him, surprised by his reaction, and smiled at the Doctor and waved as he came in.

"'Ello Masha, Jake! You're not busy are you? Good! I didn't think so, come along then!" he told them in a rapid-fire hail of words that never gave them a chance to get a word in edgewise. "Off we go now! So much to do!" he informed them with a manic grin, rubbing his hands together in excitement. "We're going to have so much fun!" he enthused. Jake, to Masha's surprise, looked less than enthused.

"Doctor, where are we going?" Jake asked, interrupting when he took a breath.

"The Albastai of the University Planet have put in a request for assistance and the Shadow Architect has asked us to come help!" he told her, as if he was offering them candy.

"A Bug Hunt?" Jake asked with a glimmer of interest.

"Well, actually a Giant Frilled Lizard hunt," he corrected. "Oh, and Masha, I need to tell you something, let's go for a little walk. Jake! Meet us at the Trans Mat all right?" he told him and steered Masha out of Torchwood, chatting about puddings and Christmas crackers.

* * *

Once they were out in the fields, looking up at the sky and breathing in the fresh air, the Doctor became tongue-tied and fell silent.

Masha stood with him for a while, looking at the stars, then turned and looked at his face with a frown. She was silent for a while.

"Come on," she told the Doctor at last, "We'll talk on the way to my place."

"No, this is better, you can scream, yell, and throw crockery without breaking any of your pretty things," he sighed out. "Masha, do you know what the Project was all about?" he asked her finally.

"No. No one ever told me anything. I take it, though, that you have found out?"

"Yes. The Time Lord who attacked Koschei? She was part of the project, you see. You were cloned from her, in fact," he told her and she nodded.

"Yeah, Susan told me that," Masha put in. "So, what was the project?"

"It was a weapon, designed to destroy whole planets and there are seventy-six little Mashas, each one a potential world destroyer. As long as you are here, in the greater universe, you pose a threat to any world that you are on. The Master died, your version anyway, but he was clever and awful and put himself away to wake up and be awful again another day. He's awake now and, as soon as he gets everything tidied up, he can push a button and you could be the conduit that blows up this world." He stopped and looked at her, his eyes so very old and so very tired. "I'm sorry, Masha."

Masha was crushed. She looked up at the Doctor with eyes that were suddenly swimming, and then away from him quickly. She stared around for a long time, up at the stars, at the little jewelled city.

"Dar knew. Must have known. That's why he wanted me to go to Susan." She shook her head, going silent for a while, looking around. "It's pretty here, isn't it?" She finally ventured.

"It's the most beautiful place in all of the universe and I was already forced to watch it destroyed once before," he murmured, his eyes bleak. "I'm so, so sorry." He opened his mouth to say something more, but Masha held up her hand. She knew already and the shredded look in his eyes was already too terrible to see.

"You don't have to ask," she told him, "I won't make you do that. Come on, walk me to my place, and you can help me lock it up." He nodded and gave her his hand. It was cool, but strong and she held onto it like a lifeline.

"We'll do that," he told her and then put a hand under her chin, lifting her face up to look into his eyes. "We'll pack and then we'll get on the Trans Mat and have one last run together, my dear girl. We'll save a world and keep a race from being destroyed. We'll run and and live and be brilliant, the two of us. Because, if I have to do this, Masha, if I have to send you back into hell, then I am going to make damn sure you have something wonderful to hold to yourself for as long as you can," he told her, his grip firm as he held onto her.

She beamed at him. "I'd like that," she said. "And you know what? This sounds very stupid but… I'm okay. I finally understand and this is the first time, ever, that I've known why and decided for myself." She hugged him suddenly, hard, harder than she meant to. Her cheeks were wet.  
He hugged her back, holding her to him like he never wanted to let her go and she felt the dampness on his face against her hair.

* * *

Dar watched the footage again and frowned. The figure moved into the alley and then didn't come out again. Charlie showed up an hour later, he looked around, saw nothing, and went into the alley. A second figure, Aislynn, he suspected, showed up minutes later and, before she was more than a fuzzy blob, the camera went out.

The camera came back on and showed nothing of any interest for some time until a drunk went into the alley to pee and came out screaming for the police.

He saw the police show up and the paramedics, followed by the morgue truck. But he was watching the crowd, looking at the bystanders. He tagged each face in the crowd and ran a search on them all. He wanted names, birth dates, everything.

There was a knock on his door and he checked the hallway camera in interest. It was Andred standing on his doorstep and he wondered what the straight-laced army officer wanted with Gallifrey's resident spook.

"Come in," he called and the door was pushed open.

"Sorry to bother you, but I had a question for you," Andred asked diffidently.

"All right, what's the question." Dar was willing to bite.

"I got a briefing from Pete about the terrorists and something was nagging at me. Why would you kill someone who was supplying you with something you needed?" Dar looked at Andred and grinned.

"That's easy, there are two reasons. One: he wasn't willing to sell it anymore and you thought he might turn you in and two: he knew too much and was dangerous to your organization," Dar replied.

"So, why haven't you tossed his place, read his diary, and scanned his body?" Andred asked and Dar sighed.

"Because right now, it's a police matter and I don't want to alert the terrorists by wandering in screaming "Torchwood" at the top of my lungs and without those credentials, I can't just walk in there and chat the police up!" he protested. "After telling Cassie to keep a low profile, I can hardly go do the opposite."

"You have a shimmer and psychic paper," Andred shot back and shut the door behind him as he left. Dar sat there for a long while, thinking about it.

On the one hand, yes, he could probably pull it off, but if he got caught, the fallout could get awkward. He was a consultant at Torchwood, but had no official standing. He helped out UNIT, but had no ID or rank there either. What he needed was some way to get himself into the investigation that would stand up to scrutiny. He needed a proper cover identity, something rock solid, that would hold up. It was actually lax of him, he realized, not to have created several of them before this.

He laced his fingers together and cracked them, like a pianist about to play a difficult composition, and then began to type.

It took a while for Dar to craft something suitable. He decided on Interpol, because they had ties to UNIT and he already had a UNIT ID and dossier. With suitable doctoring, the real file was simply duplicated with a different number and new data. The advantage of that was that all of the computer tags that identified the file as having come from so-and-so's machine could be retained, giving any hacker a great deal more trouble, trying to break his cover.

He carefully attached himself to several real cases, always as an adjunct, never as lead, he inserted himself into files, leaving a computer trail of a quiet, unassuming agent, who kept to himself, did his job, and didn't make waves. After all, he just wanted access to the files and physical locations; he wasn't planning on standing out. Go in, get the data, and go out. That's all he needed.

But still, he made the cover ID airtight, because you never knew when you'd have to use it again.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Downhill Fast

Aislynn looked at the scanner with a frown. Its number was solid red. She was running out of time.

She had resisted the idea of any further contact with that agent from the Celestial Intervention Agency, but her available options were dwindling. He had said that he knew a doctor. Perhaps he could make inquiries.

Not that she would ever provide a blood sample and risk the infection spreading to the new colony. Electronics, however, were immune and if he had managed to escape their encounter unscathed, he couldn't be harmed by a message.

The tablet he had given her had remained in its own shielded box since it had come into her possession. It was undoubtedly full of tracking devices. But he had said he would leave messages on it, so perhaps it was time to check.

So she pulled it out of its box and found that he'd left her three messages. The first one was two words, "For you", with a file appended to it. Her file. The whole thing, unexpurgated, with all the redacted bits put back in. It was a lengthy document and she stared at it for a moment before opening the next one. This also had a file attached, but it was documents related to the Nanite infestation, there were long complicated explanations, diagrams, and charts, signed by the Master, with additional notes and appendices from other sources, including the Rani. It was very thorough and would take her days to plow through. The Third file was something completely different. It was photos of Masha. Masha grinning at the camera, waving frantically. Masha sitting in a cafe, laughing with a group of people. Masha decorating a Gallifreyan-style cottage, her face smeared with paint and looking deliriously happy. There were more, but Aislynn couldn't see them through her tears.

It was very thoughtful of him to send these. She wiped her eyes and smiled at the photos. Masha looked very happy, and Aislynn was sad that she could only see the girl through pictures. How sweet of the agent to send these… well, no, 'sweet' was the wrong term. He was simply doing what he felt was necessary to ensure that she was on his side. She mustn't forget that he could very well be the one who was dispatched to end her, when it was discovered how deeply the infection ran. Still, it was an unexpected pick-me-up, and she appreciated the gesture.

She checked to see if there were any further messages, but her inbox was now empty.

She nodded, and uploaded the list that he had requested. As promised, the list of parts needed for the Elysium were quite extensive.

She sent it, and then hesitated, wondering whether to send the rest.

* * *

Masha finally let go of the Doctor, but it wasn't easy. There was something so comforting about him. For all the manic craziness and silly hair, he was solid underneath it all.

"Do you think I'll ever see it again?"

"Gallifrey? Oh yes, Masha. I promise you, we'll find a way to fix this and then you can come home again," he told her, that angular face set into serious lines and she nodded.

"Let me make two phone calls," she told him, "And then I'll be ready." She pulled out her phone and dialled Wilf, asking him to take care of her plants while she was gone and then she called Pete and got an unlimited leave of absence. She turned to the Doctor, putting the phone away. "Ready."

"Right then, let's run!" he told her, his eyes gleaming, and took off across the thick red grass, her hand in his, his trainers thudding beside her boots, both of them determined to enjoy every last moment that they could.

* * *

"So, It must be odd for you, talking to me," Susan commented with a wry smile.

"I don't understand." Adie was staring at her in confusion. She was sitting on the hospital bed, looking small, fragile, and half starved. There was something almost feral about her, like she'd been raised by wolves. Susan winced at that thought, after all, she'd been driven insane when she was eight, raised in the Tower, then shocked back into sanity somehow, before being handed over to the Master. In a manner of speaking, she had been raised by wolves.

"Well, in your timeline, I'm dead," she reminded her gently. She was fishing for information, trying to figure out what had happened to her, to the Master, to that universe. Two of them... Omega save her, one of them was enough to keep her running, two might overwhelm her completely. She snuggled closer against Koschei, trying to keep her dismay under wraps.

"I'm very glad you are alive," Adie said and she could see that the girl meant it.

"So am I," Koschei added, squeezing her tightly to him for a moment.

"It was rather helpful when it was time to save the multi-verse from ultimate destruction, yes," she murmured. "That could have gone badly." The memory of the universe ending and being remade, of all that they had suffered, of Vincent's sacrifice, it was all there in her thoughts, but she kept her voice light and shielded her energy from the delicate pastel fragility of Adie.

"You seem to be very happy with each other, you and Koschei I mean," Adie ventured.

Susan smiled and her energy flared briefly, a glow of joy and serenity that she allowed to wash over Adie, warming her as well, before she tucked it away. She wanted her to feel that joy, if only for a moment, there was so little happiness in Adie's energy that she felt compelled to try to give her some of her own.

"Happy is far too small a word," she murmured and Koschei's agreement in her mind was like a warm, safe blanket to curl against.

Adie winced, took a breath, and stiffened, like a diver about to enter freezing water.

"Susan… you do realize we are likely to have to kill him. The Master, I mean," she told her, watching her carefully, obviously trying to gauge her reaction. Koschei froze and Susan could feel the pain and conflict in him. This was the first time that he was on the other side. He was having to find a way to stop himself and he was torn in two.

"No. I don't realize that at all," Susan shot back, anger stirring in her. Adie was young and had suffered, but she didn't know enough about the Master to start making assumptions like that. "He's Koschei as well, the drums will be silent now, the compulsions falling apart, and who he really is will be starting to assert itself again. He's the same man."

"How long do you think the process will take?" Adie asked. "He could simply decide to send the kill command to the entire network and start over again at any moment. I don't want him to kill all the Mashas while we're sitting about waiting for him to change."

"Without the drumbeat and the compulsions, he'll already be feeling it," Susan explained, her anger fading as quickly as it had come, the younger woman had some valid concerns, after all. "Adie, if I can talk to him, it'll go much faster. Even at his most insane, I can always get through to him; we are bound up in each other and he's my anchor." Adie looked at her blankly and she sighed not knowing how to explain it all.

"Can you get through to him now?" she asked and Susan reached.

She closed her eyes and felt for the Master, for that place in her centre where he resided and tried to touch him. She could feel him out there, but his mind was so tortured that he had sealed himself off from everything and everyone. She could just barely brush tendrils of her thoughts against him, but she doubted that he realized she was there. He was so bitter, so angry, so anguished that it was like brushing up against a wall of knives. The lightest touch against him made her bleed.

"He's locked up tight. I need to get to him physically," she sighed and wondered how she could accomplish such a thing. He felt far away, almost impossibly distant.

"That may be tricky." Adie replied and Susan chuckled.

"You have a magical gift for understatement, Adie," she told her, feeling slightly hysterical for a moment. Two of them, how was she going to handle this? How was Koschei going to feel, once the numbness of shock wore off?

"In the meantime, where would you like me to work?" Adie asked her, breaking into her spiralling thoughts.

"Come with me," Koschei told her, speaking softly. "I have a workshop here, on the TARDIS, we can set up the remote relay there.

Susan hardly heard him, her mind already far away, trying to work through what she would have to do.

"Very well," Adie replied and Susan merely nodded, her mind reeling as the reality of it all came crashing in on her.

* * *

They ran, the Doctor and Masha, through the town, laughing like children, until they reached the door of her cottage. There the Doctor's face fell and he looked unhappy again. He reached out and lightly stroked his fingers across the stencilled designs she'd painted on it and sighed.

"I'll keep it for you, until you get back," he promised. She shook her head, refusing the offer.

"You shouldn't. Housing is too scarce; it wouldn't be fair to the people who come after me."

"Who says I care about fair?" he told her with a grimace. "Everything I was, Masha, it got destroyed in the War. I came away from it a hard and angry person. Stripped down to my core, I'm a bit of a bastard, really," he sighed out, with a rueful smile. "I'm not so good at fair. I'm better at selfish and I'm selfish enough that I would feel better if I left the house for you."

"If you would feel better, then leave it," Masha smiled at him. "And if one day you change your mind, then that's okay too," she assured him, even though her heart was breaking.

She hastened around the room, straightened up the bed, picked up her pack, which she had never really unpacked, set the vacuum-bots to the floors. She paused then, and took a last look around. Her first home. The one and only place that she had ever been truly happy. She looked at the kitchen that only Jake had ever used, then the couch where she'd sat with him, Cassie, and Mike, playing video games and genially insulting each other. There were the stairs to her study, where she had sat and dreamed of a future that she knew now would never come. This was home now and she pressed her fingers to her lips to keep in the sobs that threatened to break out. She had to be brave now. She'd made her choice, the right choice, and that had to give her the strength to do this thing.

"I'm ready," she gave him a rather watery smile, and locked the door when they went outside.

"You're a good person, Masha. A far better one than you know," he told her, but she waved this off.

"Meh. I'm really not. Just once, just one time, I am just not going to let that bloody bastard choose the target." This was only partially true, but she had to say something, or she would break down and cry.

"I know that you hate the Master and rightly so, he's done horrible things and the Master is one of the worst and most despicable monsters in history," he answered her. "But the thing is, he wasn't always. Even your version has Koschei in his head, stuck in there, trying to get out."

"So, when you were bitter and angry… what happened?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"To me? Rose happened." He gave her a blindingly happy smile. "She kicked my arse into gear, shook me out of my depression, and forced me to live again. Rose is the brakes on me, because I need someone around to remind me to do the right thing, you see." He shrugged and she gave him a look of surprise.

"The thing is, Masha, for all the good I've done, I've done a lot of terrible things as well. I used to be a much better, kinder, more compassionate person, and it got a lot of people killed, people who needn't have died," he told her and looked away, eyes on some distant plane. "So, I realized that someone had to be able to make the hard choices. Someone had to be the one willing to get the blood on their hands. I had to be able, when it was important, to not be the Doctor. But, because I had to become that person, now I need someone to be who I used to be, to be kind, to be compassionate, to come along and tell me when I'm wrong, because I can no longer trust myself to know anymore. Do you understand?" he asked and she laughed, though it had a bitter edge to it.

"Oh, yes, I understand. Better than you know," she told him and he nodded, studying her with those dark fathomless eyes.

"Masha, If it comes down to it, we may be forced to stop the Master to save you all. Honestly, as much as I love Koschei like a brother, if the choice is the universe, or one man... then there is no choice. Do you understand?" He was asking her that question with a look of profound grief in his eyes, as though her opinion of him really and truly mattered to him. As though her condemnation could break what was left of this ancient and powerful man. As though she was the most important person in all of creation at that instant and her next words could decide everything.

"Perfectly," she said, and jingled the house keys at him before putting them in his hand. "Here, I won't need these anymore." She paused, looking for the right words. "You are a good man, Doctor. It's patently obvious, ridiculously obvious. Stripped down to your core, you are a good man." She went on tiptoes to kiss his forehead, and then leaned back against the wall of the house.

"I'm not sure about that," he told her and there was something unutterably sad in him. "Good people don't need rules, and I have an awful lot of them." She nodded, because she understood that as well.

"On a much smaller scale," she continued, "I understand completely. Strip me down to my core, and what do you have? A fancy computer program and a bunch of random parts." She smiled up at him. "You and I each have a sliver of ice in our hearts. That sliver is important. We're going to need it." She looked deep into his eyes.

He smiled and it was an expression both of happiness and also of mutual understanding. He understood what she was saying, both the overt and the subtext and he grinned at her suddenly, the sun coming out from behind the storm clouds.

"I will try to remember, Masha."

* * *

The Master sat in his chair with his hand over his mouth, trying to fathom the huge changes around him. Gallifrey was there on his sensors, but it was not the Gallifrey he'd left behind. The Song of his people was distressingly faint, the merest thread of sound, and there was no sign of the Daleks at all.

Something massive had happened, a huge shift in the timestream, something he'd been insulated from in his Temporal Grace Point. He scanned Karn and found it lush and green, Earth was more advanced than it ought to be at this point in its history, and Skaro was a burned-out hulk, incapable of supporting any life at all, with no signs that anything had survived the terrible war between the Kaleds and the Thalls.

Logopolis was still there, Castrovalva, and the Traken Union, all the places that he'd destroyed in his past were restored, unharmed, as though he'd never existed.

He was utterly baffled. It made no sense at all. He'd designed the control station to survive the collapse of any timelines, but what had happened to collapse the timeline so drastically? He needed to find out.

The ship, then. His TARDIS surely hadn't had much, if any, maintenance in the last century. Scowling, he got up and headed out to run a full systems check. Maybe the answers to his questions would be found there, in her data banks.

* * *

Adie walking along beside Koschei towards the workshop,was glad of the brief interval in which she could engage in quiet reflection. She walked the hallways, head down, so deep in thought that the lovely surroundings hardly made any impression on her. Koschei pacing beside her, giving her time to her own thoughts.

Her mind was reeling. Gallifrey was gone. The Time Lords were all but gone. Everything had changed. Everything she had known had been swept away while she'd been sleeping. All of the equations of her existence were no longer valid. She'd lived the majority of her life caring for the Mashas and she was glad that Koschei seemed to care for them too, but she wasn't sure that they understood, Susan and him, exactly what they were dealing with.

She'd spent far too long coping with the Master and, while she could see that Koschei was a good and decent person, she wasn't convinced that when the Master realized what had happened, he'd be as kind and forgiving as Koschei was. Adie had trouble imagining how Susan could talk the Master down. She had far too much experience with his single-minded obsession with her to envision anything but him trying to kill Koschei out of jealousy and rage, when he realized that Koschei had gotten the life he'd wanted so desperately. Still, that was something Susan and Koschei would have to deal with, while Adie had her own very serious concerns.

She hadn't spent so many centuries protecting the Mashas to have them be slaughtered now. She had to find a way they could be gotten out of harm's way somehow before the inevitable confrontation.

Reaching the door of the workshop, she took a breath, and followed Koschei inside.

* * *

Masha stepped outside and followed the Doctor to the Trans Mat, where Jake was waiting for them.

"Oh botheration! I need to go, be right back!" the Doctor cried and took off before either of them could say a word.

"So, I haven't been on one of these particular raids before," she told Jake. "What is the usual strategy? Knock politely and tell 'em you're selling encyclopaedias?"

He laughed and shook his head.

"More like "shock and awe" and yelling "This is the Shadow Proclamation, you are under arrest!" he told her, arms crossed and Bella Morte slung across his back. Masha put her palm over her face.

"Oh my God, seriously?" she asked in horror and he laughed again.

"We have to do things according to our charter from the Shadow Proclamation," he replied with a shrug. "We are technically cops when we answer one of these things. If it's home on Earth, well, that's a different story, because then we're acting as Torchwood and we can be absolute bastards. On SP jobs, we have to follow SP rules." he explained and Masha rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Oh, I nearly forgot! All data on the Albastai call for intervention, please display," he requested of the device and holographic images sprouted up. He handed it to Masha. "Data on the Bug Hunt," he told her.

Masha took the offered phone. She spent the next several minutes reviewing the request and the information provided about the invading force. A group of tall, gangly-looking lizards had apparently broken out of the sewer system and were sweeping across the planet, which was, it seemed, one really big University.

"All right, looks pretty standard," she smiled at him. "Nothing we can't handle, partner."

"I didn't think that a bunch of frilled lizards would daunt you," he told her with a grin and it occurred to her that his grin really was rather dangerous. It certainly did things to her pulse rate that she had somehow not noticed before.

"We leaving soon?" she asked, impatient to be off of Gallifrey.

"We have to wait for the Doctor, and then we can go." She nodded and leaned against the wall beside him, settling in to wait.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Second Impressions

In Koschei's workshop, Freeya was hunched over at a bench, etching an ionic circuit. Koschei moved to stand beside her, bending down and guiding her hand as she worked. The little girl was frowning fiercely, the picture of intense concentration.

Adie paused in the doorway, just watching.

"Right, little love, just close off that end loop and you're done," Koschei told her and Adie was forcibly reminded of the coldness and contempt of his other self, which was so much the polar opposite of what she was seeing now.

"Is it good enough to use?" Freeya asked anxiously and Koschei held it up to the light, squinting at it, before he set it into the analyser for processing.

"Circuit passes at 98%," the computer informed them and Koschei grinned down at her. She squealed in excitement and he smacked his right hand against her left one in some sort of ritualistic gesture.

"Whoo-hoo!" she cried and he turned and spotted Adie still just standing by the door. Freeya saw her and grinned broadly. "Did you see that? It passed!" she told her with a gleeful tone.

"Congratulations, well done! What's it for?" Adie asked as she stepped into the room.

"It's the last circuit needed to get the Temporal Monitoring Station operational," Koschei explained. "We're having to rebuild the entire infrastructure of the planet from very nearly scratch," he sighed and again Adie was reminded of how much had been lost.

"I understand," she said, and her voice was low, but her tones were neutral. "Where would you like me to begin working?"

"Well, I'm going to need a systems map that shows the original configuration, so I can figure out how exactly the whole array works. I'm far too ignorant of the practical realities of it to go mucking about and hitting random buttons," he sighed.

"How would you like it formatted and displayed?" she asked, memories of the Master's scathing criticisms ringing in her ears.

He looked at her for a long while before answering.

"You could sketch it for me on a cocktail napkin, as long as it was clear," he told her gently and she was startled by the sincere compassion in his gaze. He was serious, she realized. He wasn't going to snark and sneer at her for whatever she gave him and she relaxed minutely.

"If you have an extra notepad," she offered, "I can set up a series of overlays."

He went to a portion of wall, tapped it lightly, and a door swung open, displaying a range of computing devices from simple interface plugs to high end processing units.

"Pick your favourite," he offered and went back to help Freeya with her project. Adie stood in front of the open cabinet and stood there, blinking in surprise.

"Uh…Thank you," she responded, suddenly a bit overwhelmed. She looked over all the available units, selected one that wasn't too valuable, but would do the job well, then went to an empty stool and began working with it.

* * *

Masha stood, absorbing everything, trying to imprint the whole planet on her mind, to tuck all the friends she'd made, all the happy memories inside of herself. In spite of the Doctor's promise, she doubted she would ever be able to come back here. This would be the last night she could see stars without smoke rising, or see a city unburned, unbroken, the people laughing, instead of screaming. She looked at it all, mourning what that she was leaving behind, unaware of the expression on her face.

"Why so grim?" Jake asked softly and she jumped a little. She had actually forgotten that he was there for a moment. She looked at him and opened her mouth to brush him off and then slowly closed it. He was her partner, and in the month they had known each other she had come to like and trust him. He deserved to know the truth, all of it.

"I… have to go," she said. "I already called Pete. He said I can take a leave of absence, or something."

"What? Why? For how long?" he asked and there was genuine distress in his voice.

"No way to tell," she said and scuffed her toe against the ground. "Maybe for a while and maybe forever."

"Could you go from mysterious and vague to slightly making sense?" he requested, sounding strained. She was distressed to see how much of the light had gone out of his eyes.

"I'm sorry. The Doctor and I have been talking." She grimaced, struggling for words. "He found out why I was created and because of that, I… I can't stay."

"Because you're actually the long lost Princess of Apalapucia and they need you to come back and take over the planet?" he asked hopefully and Masha giggled, but it died quickly.

"Because I'm sort of wearing the cosmic equivalent of an explosive vest."

"Which doesn't sound nearly as much like a party," he murmured and, to her shock, pulled her into a hug. "Can't we just get it off of you?" She hugged him hard in return, but finally drew back. It was much harder to talk about leaving when he had his arms around her.

"Did the Doctor ever mention this other Time Lord that used to be a problem? Guy called the Master?"

"Yeah, of course, that's what Koschei called himself, back when he was a nutter, but he's all better now, Susan rewired his head or something," he told her with a shrug and Masha stared at him. He'd known all this time and she'd never even thought to ask him about it.

"Well, there are two of them it seems, Koschei and the Master, they split apart or something and he's back. Not Koschei. The Master. The one who made me. And he has his finger on a button. At any time, he can take it into his nutter head to press it. If he does…" She shrugged expressively, dropping the rest of the sentence.

"Need me to hold him down while you stomp on him?" he asked with a hopeful look.

The picture of him holding down the Master, while Masha stomped on him, was so ludicrous that she threw back her head and laughed out loud. His words had broken her grim mood.

* * *

"Koschei let me have a Ravel 17," Freeya told her with a smug look and Adie was startled again by the generosity of the gift. "Loren gets all green and nasty every time he sees me use it," she told her and Adie could well believe it. The Ravel was a very expensive, high-end machine and, when last she'd been aware of such things, had only been at iteration 4. A 17 must be more computing power than a little girl could possibly need.

"Gloating isn't nice, Freeya," Koschei corrected her absently and Adie found herself staring at him. "I didn't give it to you to make Loren jealous, but because you needed it for your homework."

Adie tried not to giggle hysterically. Freeya needed that monster for her homework? Not likely. However, the Master telling someone else not to gloat was like a Quasar telling another star not to pulse. There was something utterly surreal about it all, like she was trapped in a bizarre dream.

"Back to work, little love, for all of us," he told Freeya and she grinned at him, pulling out the extremely overpowered computer he'd gifted her with from her satchel, and setting it up.

"We have languages homework," she said with disgust and he laughed.

"Helps you read the labels on alien tech," he told her and she looked at the homework with less unhappiness.

"I hadn't thought of that," she admitted and he ruffled her hair affectionately, while Adie made herself stop staring. It was good that he looked completely different than the Master did, it helped make things a bit less disorienting for her, but even so, she was having a great deal of trouble reconciling this quiet, gentle engineer with the ranting madman she'd spent so long in terror of.

This was going to take some getting used to.

* * *

Aislynn was worried. The terrorists were bound to discover the switch soon; there was no way they had a large supply of the swapped components on-hand, but that wasn't really what was making her nervous.

Captain Darginian could choose to terminate her at any time. That she was still alive was gratifying, but not as comforting as it could be. He could always change his mind.

Trying to take her mind off her nervousness, she concentrated on the medical file that the Captain had provided.

It was while she was working with the tablet, trying to absorb the information in the medical file, that she realized that the beds of her fingernails were turning gray. The sight stopped her cold and she just stared at them for a long time.

* * *

"Ha! What makes you think I would leave anything of the Master for you?" Masha teased and Jake smiled at her, his eyes dancing.

"Because I hate missing out on a well-deserved beating and a real friend would invite me along for one?"

"Dude, trust me: if you miss out on only one beating in your entire life... make sure this one is it," she replied, suddenly not feeling at all like laughing. The image of Jake, strapped to an 'adjustment' table with the Master standing over him wasn't funny at all, it was terrifying.

He cocked his head and studied her for a moment.

"I've fought Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Draconians, human terrorists, and a whole host of others, I'm not exactly a lightweight, Masha," he assured her. He smiled again, but this time is was a flat predatory look, the face of a fighter, a hunter, the sort of person who walks into cities and then walks out again with them burning behind him. "If there is something that you think is too much even for me, then it must be something really dangerous."

"I'm not going up against the Master, Jake, I'm going back into the Loops and they aren't like that," she said. "They're…" She turned to him suddenly; memorizing his face, the way the light played across his features, the rich deep blue of his eyes, and then shook her head. "They're some place I don't want you to see."

"I've seen some rather terrible places, Masha," he told her.

"I know," she said. "But you haven't seen the Loops and I don't want you to. Of course, that's probably not very realistic." She took a breath. "But, you know, they're old hat to me, the Doctor may have everything fixed up right away, so I might not need to hang out there long." She tried to sound casual. She didn't want Jake to worry too much.

"So, you have to go in until the Doctor fixes things, eh?"

"I just have to survive until I can make it back here," she told him, but then added, "I know what to do, and I can pull it off all right. Ultimately, it's up to the Doctor and I trust him."

"Me too," Jake answered and they fell silent again.

She looked at the town, like jewels set into a hill, and at the windmill farm, which was just barely visible in the distance, and knew she would never dare to set foot on this planet again until she wasn't a threat anymore, even if that meant never returning. The Master probably wouldn't choose to focus the lens on her right now, he'd be too busy making some crazy plan to bother with this planet just now. Yet, the fact that he might do so, the idea that he could, at any moment, take it into his head to press a button on a console somewhere, and this city and everyone living here would be gone in an instant, made her too fearful to stay. The thought of Wilf, Donna, Pete, Cassie, Mike, the Doctor, and all the rest being endangered by her very presence was too awful to contemplate.

* * *

The Doctor found Leela and Andred in their garden. They saw him coming and Andred sighed, while Leela visibly brightened.

"Tell me you have something fun for us!" Leela requested with an anticipatory smile.

"How would you like to save a planet full of peaceful scholars from invading lizards?" he asked, an indulgent parent proffering a treat, and Leela laughed.

"Sounds like fun," she told him. "Let me get my gear!" She bounced into the house to change from dirt-spattered overalls to full recon gear.

Andred got up and brushed himself off.

"Details?" he asked calmly.

"University Planet has been attacked by giant frilled lizard people," the Doctor explained. "The Architect called us in to see if there was anything we could do."

"I see." Andred nodded thoughtfully, turned, and went to get his own gear.

* * *

Aislynn's grim thoughts were interrupted by a beep from computers. She moved to check the incoming data. The box with the decoy components had been moved.

She felt ashamed of herself for being glad. These were horrible, insane murderers, blowing up shop windows at Christmas, and she ought to be horrified that they needed more components at all, but it gave her something useful to do. She could locate these individuals and ensure that they could never harm anyone again.

First, however, a manicure was in order, she didn't care to see her fingernails turn gray, because silver would be next. She painted her nails and tried to ignore the panic fluttering in her stomach.

She paused briefly to recite a chant. The chant couldn't eliminate the Nanites, but it locked them into her own bloodstream. Barring actual blood contact, no one could be infected by her. It had its drawbacks; the chant was making her sicker, but there was nothing else that could be done to eliminate the possibility of contagion.

She threw on her dark coat and headed out the door.

* * *

Masha scowled, turned her gaze away from the town, and stared at the Trans Mat station.

"And you know what, if the Doctor was smart, he'd just leave me to rot," she said to Jake, feeling frustrated. "This is going to turn into a war and he's got to know that. If any of them had any sense at all, they would just put everything right back where they found it and just go. Koschei, Susan, the Doctor, all of them! None of them will, mind you, because they are all too damn noble, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why they haven't all said, 'To hell with it,' and gone off to a day at the beach or something. I mean bloody hell!" she shouted.

No amount of torture would ever, ever have been able to get Masha to make these statements aloud to the Doctor, Koschei or Susan. But for some reason she felt so comfortable talking to Jake that it seemed perfectly natural to tell him how she was really feeling.

"You ever think that maybe they wish they could do that too?" Jake asked softly. "How many times have they done the right thing and it has cost them? You go out to save people, many of whom don't even care that you did. You bleed, you lose people you really love, you struggle through mud, blood, and worse, and then you get up and do it again. You nearly die a dozen times and swear you're done with it all. Bugger it, no more of this crap. This time for sure," he spat out, his face hard and angry.

"Then, you go out and see a burned-down town somewhere, you see the pile of bodies, all the town children, who'd been herded into the square and slaughtered because they were too small for conversion. Hundreds of them. Lying there, ripped apart by bullet sprays and the only thing you can think is; "I was too late. I didn't move fast enough." It's crazy. After all, it's just you and Mickey, driving through Europe, trying to stop thousands of them. There is no way that you could have saved everyone. But, it doesn't matter. You still go to sleep every night, thinking about all the ones you couldn't save. Those children's faces still haunt your dreams and probably will till the day you die." He took a deep breath, his eyes troubled, his face drawn and haggard, his hands quivering slightly.

"The thing is, Masha. If you could see stuff like that and not bleed inside, then you would have turned into one of them, you know? Soulless, emotionless, a real monster. If you can see someone dying in the road and you can just walk by and not help them, then you're nothing but a robot, you're not a human being anymore. Anyone who could just walk away from that and could still sleep well at night isn't anybody I'd want to have anything to do with." He ran out of words abruptly and suddenly seemed embarrassed by his outburst. "Sorry. Sometimes I talk too much."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Bug Hunt

Dar wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing, as far as Aislynn was concerned. Part of him knew that he ought to kill her. He straightened his tie and affixed the Interpol badge to the pocket of his jacket. He looked at himself in the mirror, checking the disguise features of the shimmer carefully. He now appeared to be a dark-haired human male of the sub-group Italian. He had downloaded all the relevant data and was now sure he could pull off the role convincingly.

He looked into a stranger's eyes, the mirror reflecting his new face and sighed. He ought to kill her, it was the best thing to do, the safest thing. But, he knew, not the right thing.

"Bloody hell," he hissed out, using the phrase he'd cribbed from Rose and Jackie. Things had been so much simpler before he'd gotten a conscience.

He pulled back his sleeve and activated the Vortex manipulator, vanishing from Gallifrey and reappearing at Scotland Yard a moment later. He forced his mind off of Aislynn and back on the terrorists. He had work to do.

* * *

There was something in the way Jake spoke that connected with Masha. It gave her the idea that, emotionally, he had been some of the places that she had travelled; and her heart broke for him, but it also warmed a bit, as if he had placed a blanket around her shoulders. She thought of dead children and Conversion and suddenly the return to the Loops didn't seem as bad: at least it would only be her in Hell.

The Doctor had given her one last night, and she felt truly lucky to have it. She moved a stray lock of hair out of his eyes, looking into them, studying his face.

"I think maybe you haven't talked enough," she said gently and he smiled at her suddenly, but it was a rueful look.

"Maybe." He looked like he was about to say something else, but the Doctor came walking up with two more people in tow. They were both in full paramilitary gear, looking lethal, dangerous, and competent in a reassuring way.

The woman, a muscular figure with sharp blue eyes and short dark hair, grinned and pounded Jake on the shoulder. He didn't even wobble, which was impressive, since her slap on Masha's shoulder was affectionate and friendly, but much stronger than she'd expected it to be.

The man was stocky, but moved with a lethal grace, his face pleasant and square, with wavy black hair and eyes the same shade of blue as the woman's.

"Masha, meet Andred and Leela, they'll be coming with us," the Doctor introduced them and she nodded, familiar with the names. She'd heard some of the Agents talk about them. A married couple who fought as a team was interesting.

"Hello Masha! The Doctor says you are a joy to watch in action. I look forward to fighting beside you!" Leela enthused, obviously looking forward to a fun night of sticking some of the many lethal blades hung around her body into screaming opponents. "For the Honour of the Sevateem, Captain, lead us to glory!" she teased Jake and he grinned back at her.

"Sorry that I'm running a bit behind!" the Doctor apologized. "We should get going, can't be late to the party!" he insisted and hustled them all onto the Trans Mat.

* * *

Aislynn, her dark coat swirling around her ankles, stalked silently through London. In her pocket, she kept her sonic running, turning cameras away from her, wherever she went.

She stepped into the building across from the warehouse and mounted the stairs laboriously, panting with the effort. The fight to keep her mind clear of the orders the Dalek Nanites were trying to give her brain took so much of her energy that she had little left anymore.

She peered out the window and saw them loading the crates onto a truck. Plain, unmarked, dusty white van, of no particular interest, she noted. They were clever, which she'd known before, but they were also efficient, which was a new piece of data.

The tracer she'd placed in the crate abruptly shut off and she sighed.

It had been a bit of a long shot, after all.

She waited until they had cleared out and then stumbled down the stairs and made her slow, painful way home.

* * *

Dar smiled at the dark-haired, surly detective and handed him the perfectly forged paperwork. Technically, they weren't even actually forged. These were genuine orders issued by Interpol to Detective David Funicelli, ordering him to report on the progress of the murder investigation of a man believed to have been an international tech smuggler; it's just that no one at Interpol had actually issued the orders, even though their computers had generated them.

The detective frowned at the paperwork and grumbled.

"Fine, beuno, great," he tossed off. "The files are over there and I'll get a constable to walk you by," he muttered with ill grace.

"Gratzi, Inspectore Lestrade, most kind," Dar assured the man, who flopped back behind his desk and watched him leave with resentful eyes.

* * *

The TARDIS wasn't in as bad a shape as the Master had feared. He had expected that it would have been untouched in his absence, but it was fairly well maintained. Undoubtedly, the Locus had done bits here and there.

Which begged the question, where was the Locus? Certainly not aboard, and all recording equipment had been shut down while he had been in stasis.

He assumed that she was the one who had raided his wardrobe; it was an oversight on his part not to have provided her with some sort of long-lasting garment for such a situation as this. Not that he'd envisioned being in stasis for so long.

His plan had been that once she'd realized he was absent, she would have slipped her collar and fled, like a sane being, which would have started up the machinery to revive him. Could she have realized that? She'd not been stupid, merely clumsy and incompetent. He tried to imagine her remaining here, collar on, trembling in fear at his revival, and it still didn't make sense.

If she had been so scared of him, why not just smash the stasis chamber and kill him? The timing on the self-destruct routine would have given her ample time to escape before the project immolated itself. Yet, it seemed that she had stayed all this time, collared, and still maintaining the project.

Could she have been loyal? He turned that thought around in his head and then dismissed it. He'd given scant cause for her to feel any warmth for him. He'd despised her and she knew it. Still, why else would she have stayed? Some twinge of something accompanied that thought. It occurred to him that Susan wouldn't have liked how he'd treated the girl. He shook his head, trying to dislodge that unwelcome thought.

The other question that nagged at him was why the Locus had changed her mind. After spending so long obediently caring for the machinery, why had she suddenly rid herself of the collar? None of it made sense.

He accessed the TARDIS databanks and froze in horror as the images of Gallifrey's destruction began to play.

This wasn't another timeline; it was a whole different universe.

Gallifrey, his Gallifrey, was gone.

* * *

"The Doctor exaggerates," Masha told Leela with a shrug, feeling self-conscious at the extravagant praise.

"Oh please! You were built by the Master for the sole purpose of kicking arse on a regular basis. You should be the apple of Leela's terribly violent eye!" The Doctor tossed off with a wave of his hand and Masha cringed. She really hadn't wanted to mention that to anyone.

"Besides, we've all seen the news coverage," Jake reminded her. "Wonder Woman."

"The Master built her?" Leela asked with a frown, justifying Masha's fears. "Hope he got some help, you know how bad he is at biologics!" she sighed. Andred, who'd been silent up until now, looked a bit uncomfortable. He was watching her with speculation and a bit of suspicion, until the Doctor stepped firmly on his foot as he got into place. Then, his face cleared and he just looked embarrassed.

"Sorry," he told her. "Knee jerk reaction to anything to do with the Master. No offence, Miss."

They dissolved into electrons and were reassembled elsewhere before she could answer him, but the look Masha gave the Doctor's back might have bored holes in it. She thought about smacking him upside the head, but decided against it at the last minute.

"You know," she growled in an undertone, "There is a reason I don't mention my origins." He looked at her with wide innocent eyes that fooled her not at all, but she sighed and let it go. What was done was done.

The view had changed abruptly from the night sky of Gallifrey to a dazzlingly white room with a line of people waiting to get on and a line of people leaving. A slender woman with white hair, white skin, and pink eyes was waiting for them.

"Shadow Architect!" the Doctor called out. "You didn't have to come personally. That was very kind of you." She tilted her head graciously at the Doctor and waved them out.

"There have been developments, I thought you ought to be informed," she told them as they walked out of the Trans Mat station room.

Masha couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief that they were off planet. If the button was pushed, Gallifrey at least would be safe.

Jake slipped his hand into hers and pulled her along beside him, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

"My Mum was a prostie and she didn't know which of her customers fathered me," he told her as they followed the Doctor and the Shadow Architect. "All that matters is where you get to, not where you're from." Her spirits, which had plunged with the Doctor's casual revelation, lifted again and she smiled at him. That he understood so well what she had been feeling was enough to make her feel at ease again.

"Thanks for that," she said, and hastily went to follow the Doctor, to see what had upset the Shadow Proclamation so much as to call for the Architect herself.

"The creatures that were coming up through the catacombs on Albastai were assumed to be invaders, but are now appearing to be a second native race. The problem now becomes internal, since this is a civil war instead of an invasion. The situation is still rather bad though, because the second race is determined to exterminate the Albastains and take over the surface," she explained.

"We need to protect the Albastains from genocide," the Doctor protested and she nodded.

"I am in agreement with you, Doctor, as is the Directorate, but it would require landing far more troops than we presently have on call at this moment. Between sitting on the Draconian Empire to keep that lot from making any more moves, and the peacekeeping we've been doing on the Sontaran and Rutan fronts, we're thin on the ground just now." She was obviously distressed, wringing her hands as she spoke.

"Not to worry, we'll go down and take care of it," the Doctor assured her.

"What? Just the five of you?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah, just the five of us," he told her with a small smile. "Don't worry, Architect, we're quite experienced with this sort of thing."

* * *

Adie worked quietly, for perhaps an hour, before approaching Koschei with the tablet she had selected.

"Here are the overlays," she said, handing it to him "You can see the project as originally envisioned, as it progressed through several phases, to its current construction, less Rat's… tweaks."

Koschei flipped through her graphics a frown on his face.

"Well, thinking like a nutter is harder for me these days," he sighed out. "But, if I was utterly mad, my first thought would be to prune all of this overgrowth," he told her pointing to all the new paths and routes. "I have to assume that that is what he'll do, Adie. So, we need to move the Mashas out of any threatened areas and get them to safety."

"Agreed. May I suggest a stable node and modification of these pathways here…?"

"You're a clever one!" he approved and nodded at her suggestion.

"Here are the codes you would need to do that…" She flipped through screens, then handed him what she remembered of the network mapping. She doubted that she'd forgotten much, after all for two hundred years, it had been her one real concern.

He nodded, went over to his computer, and started working up her solution, without hesitation, which surprised Adie a bit. She said nothing, getting to work on her tablet again, entering long strings of remembered data while he was working. She was quite accustomed to working with his counterpart, and it seemed as if every time he raised his head to ask a question, or get a clarification, she had the needed data ready and waiting for him.

"How have I gotten along without you?" he muttered absently. "I could have used a research partner as competent as you when I started the Defence Protocols for Earth." He was deep in the work, just saying whatever he was thinking, and she knew he couldn't realize how it must impact her just then. A hundred years and she'd had no idea how desperate she'd been for even a crumb of approval.

"Oh my, I'm doing it again, I should have ordered tea for us," Koschei sighed. "Who's in the kitchen?" he called through the intercom.

"I am," a male voice replied.

"Rory! Hello mate, are you busy?" Koschei asked next and there was a chuckle on the other end.

"Not especially, my nursing skills are scarcely in high demand," he joked.

"Right, well can I beg you for two cups of tea and a cup of cocoa, for the poor starving folks in the workshop?" he asked in a pathetic tone, as though they were all expiring from want.

"On my way, Shay," laughed the voice and the blond turned to look at Freeya.

"Yes, the cocoa is for you," he affirmed and she grinned at him. It was quite clear that she had him firmly wrapped around her little finger and that he was quite content with it to be so. Which made her earlier assumptions about why Freeya was there seem suddenly both ridiculous and somewhat insulting to them both.

The door opened and a tall, gangling human man entered. He had a long face, rather soulful brown eyes, and sandy brown hair that stuck up awkwardly on top of his head. There was something ungainly about his movements, but he radiated such a fierce loyalty and such boundless compassion that Adie found herself smiling at him just a bit. He carried in a heavily loaded tray with a rather embarrassed look on his face.

"Martha collared me in the hallway and told me to bring you food as well. You didn't eat what she brought you before and she was a bit miffed," he told them with a smile.

"Uh-oh! We had all better eat, Martha on the warpath is a dangerous foe!" Koschei teased and took a mug of tea and a plate of food from the tray.

Adie made sure that Freeya had her meal sorted first, then took her own.

"How's Mel?" the little girl asked Rory, who grinned down at her with a contented expression.

"Three years old in about a month and a half. I do hope that you will condescend to attend her party, my Lady?" Rory asked the child and he made a really quite good attempt at a formal Gallifreyan bow.

"I will see if my schedule will allow," she told him with an airy wave and then they both laughed.

Adie smiled at them both, and took a sip of her tea. It was very good. She closed her eyes for a moment. It had been a long time indeed since she had had a good cup of tea. The replicators on the Master's TARDIS, of course, did the best they could; but she thought that this might have been brewed from real tea leaves, and it was very nice indeed.

"Lapsang Souchong?" Koschei asked Rory and he shrugged.

"I dunno, I just found a tin in the cupboard," he admitted and headed back out, leaving Koschei chuckling behind him.

"Someday I will teach him a proper appreciation of tea," Koschei promised and then dove back into work, absently nibbling on a sandwich as he typed.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - The Shadow Proclamation

Masha looked at the others. Leela was obviously excited and pleased, Andred looked calm, if a touch resigned, and Jake was looking off, his eyes slightly unfocused, deep in thought.

"We'll need some equipment, Doc," he pointed out and the Doctor turned and quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Such as?"

"Sonic wave generators, some flash bangs, and probably a whole lot of containment field generators," he replied, his mind obviously ticking over as he worked through the problem of five people going up against an army. "You want this to be non-lethal, at least until you can talk to the leadership, right?"

"I do," the Doctor admitted and then looked at the Architect, who nodded. "We'll need sleep darts as well."

"All of that can be arranged," she agreed.

Masha watched the discussions for a moment; Jake and Leela started chatting about specific equipment that would be needed, while the Doctor and the Architect were conferring on strategy.

"I have a few items on my wish list too," she smiled at him, "Here, let me write them down..." The Doctor grinned at her.

"I expected you might. The Architect is giving us free run of the toy shop, I think we ought to grab what we can before she changes her mind," he told her with a twinkle in his eye.

* * *

Dar had hunched his shoulders, shifted his walk, and changed his mannerisms with the consummate skill of a born actor. He would have been nearly unrecognisable even without the shimmer, but with it, even his closest friends wouldn't have known him.

He followed the police constable up the stairs and into the apartment of the recently deceased Charles Cooper. His first impression was that the man must have single-handedly kept the porn industry in business. The vast collection of movies, books, magazines, posters, and art was truly staggering.

"And he didn't have a girlfriend," the constable told him. "Can you believe it?" she asked with a roll of her eyes.

"If he had, he would not have been needing all of this," Dar replied, his Italian accent rolling off of his tongue smoothly.

He kept up the cheerful banter with the pretty, dark-skinned girl, but his eyes were busy cataloguing everything he saw. His watch was actually a sophisticated scanner, which silently searched out every secret in the place and recorded it for playback. He peered at the dead man's computer and casually brushed a gloved finger over the hard drive, leaving a tiny remote access unit on it. It was instantly blended into the surface and became undetectable and Dar nodded politely at the constable's chatter.

He pretended to be a friendly, not especially bright or vigorous fellow, glancing around casually and noddingly accepting all the completely erroneous conclusions that the detective inspector had come to, and which the constable was parroting back to him with a confident air.

With a pleasant wave, he headed off in a taxi, headed for the morgue where they were keeping Charlie's body.

* * *

Masha sat down and spent some time writing before presenting her list to the Architect. She had the pleasure of seeing the Architect's eyebrows rise to her hairline.

"These are... very singular and unusual items."

Masha nodded. "Mmm-hmm."

"Were you not a companion of the Doctor..." The Architect looked mildly suspicious. "Very well, you shall have all."

Masha beamed at her like the cat that had swallowed the canary and the Doctor grinned at her, eyes twinkling.

"Thinking ahead, are you?" he asked. "Good on you."

"I always think ahead." Her face was serious. A few minutes later, her items were delivered and she tucked them into her pack. "All right, I'm ready... shall we go? We have an army to stop."

"Allons-y!" the Doctor called out and headed back to the Trans Mat at a trot. He, of course, was armed only with his sonic.

Jake was hauling a backpack stuffed with goodies, as was Andred. Leela was acting as roving point for them, unencumbered and eyes already flicking around with trained watchfulness.

Masha's pack was smaller, lighter, leaving her movements as unencumbered as possible. She brought up the rear and waited patiently for someone to dial in the new coordinates.

The Doctor obliged her and the others slotted into place. Somehow, without anyone saying anything, the Doctor was placed in the middle, in the most protected part of the formation. He didn't seem to notice and none of the others seemed like they were going to point that out, but the underlying message was clear to Masha. Protect the Doctor. Make sure that, even if the rest of them died, he came back safe.

Masha nodded in agreement and looked at where they had landed, unhitching the rifle she'd gotten from the Shadow Architect and holding it with practised ease. The Doctor had insisted on non-lethal darts, instead of actual ammo and Masha was dubious, but the others had accepted without question, so she did to.

It was an open plaza on the surface of a world with skies of a cerulean blue. Tiny silvery clouds were stretched across it in attenuated wisps and it was pierced by pointed trapezoid spires that stretched up for miles. The area was lush with vegetation, all unfamiliar plants, but with the feel of a tropical rain-forest nonetheless. A wide-eyed slender creature with huge eyes dominating a narrow, rather mournful-looking face startled at the sight of them.

"We're the Shadow Proclamation's Rapid Response Team," Jake informed him and there was a nod as the creature stepped forward and bowed politely.

"I'm all of apologies for hospitality lacking of me," he murmured and Masha realized that his halting speech and odd accent was the result of him actually speaking Trade to them. There was no translation to smooth his words, he was trying to speak to them in what he presumed was their own language.

"We completely understand," the Doctor assured him. "Please, take us to your Headquarters and we will confer with your generals."

"Generals are not for our having. Peaceful scholars are what we have here."

Masha looked around, but didn't immediately see an invading force. She stuck very close to the Doctor and Jake. It did look like the University sort of took over the whole planet, she realized.

"Yes," the Doctor murmured. "I can see that your civilization is not warlike." He was looking around as well. "Your city is beautiful; we'll do what we can to protect it."

"Architecture rebuilds, people are resources, irreplaceable, precious. Save them, buildings not important," the large eyes were intent on their faces, making sure that they understood. "To Dean we go. Conversations to be had."

He led them through the foliage and out onto a street. Here now, they could see damage. Fires, wreckage, bodies of the slender creatures, rather like hairless lemurs in appearance, laying about. Others were gathering the dead and the injured and carrying them away. A child was being carried, her face rigid with shocked disbelief and horror, Jake's eyes lingered a moment longer on her than the others, then he turned back to scanning the area, his face hard.

"To the Dean we go," murmured Masha sadly. She had seen far too much of this sort of thing as had the Doctor and Jake, but Jake seemed most affected. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder. There were no words to be said. He shot her a small smile, understanding the gesture and the reason behind it.

"I didn't get your name," the Doctor commented to their guide, who bobbed his head in a curiously bird-like gesture.

"I am Scholar of Fine Arts, Ceramics of the Gremoznam Era, Tabbitz. Called Ceragrem, for ease of the speaking," he replied and Jake blinked.

"Pleased to meet you, Ceragrem, I'm the Doctor." The scholar spun and stared up at him in awe.

"The Doctor? What fields?" he asked, suddenly excited.

"I have multiple doctorates in over a dozen fields," the Doctor replied, a trifle taken back.

"Oh, to forgive rudeness of lowly address, Greatest of Scholars!" he carolled and bowed them into a stately building with great ceremony.

"Not necessary, really," the Doctor protested rather faintly as they went.

His words sparked an interest in Masha, who had been attempting to look politely disinterested, like a soldier, and leave matters entirely in the hands of the Doctor.

"You... study ceramics?" She inquired shyly of Ceragrem and he nodded vigorously.

"Oh yes, the beauty of line and form, the way that function changes the shape, the style, how fashions in art and decoration change over time, I find it utterly enthralling. The satin feeling of painted ceramics or the rough texture of raw fired work, all is a joy to me!" he told her with an enraptured look.

In the meantime, the Doctor and Jake had approached an Albastain in many layers of heavy multi-coloured robes and began conferring with her. She seemed a grim and focused individual from the body language that Masha could observe.

"Wow, I'm... jealous," she murmured, but then saw the brightly-robed Albastain approaching. "Gotta run," she said, waved goodbye to Ceragrem, and quietly joined Jake and the Doctor. She suspected she wouldn't have much to say in this conversation, but definitely wanted to hear it.

"You study here someday, perhaps?" he called after her. "Students are welcomed."

"No," she murmured sadly. "No studying. I can't stay," she told him and he looked a bit unhappy, but bowed and withdrew.

* * *

Some hours later, Adie once again passed her notepad to Koschei.

"Well, with the exception of our resident Rat, I believe that that should cover about everything."

"It's a huge mess, Adie," he sighed out. "I think I've gotten all the girls to safety, though one or two of them were... um... resistant to moving, but I'm not sure how to get them out of there without endangering every place I put them."

"You can't," she looked sad. "That's one thing you will find about this project: there really aren't any good choices. Did you notice how we have 76 Mashas, but 83 network points? She's added a few more recently. I have no way to tell which are the fakes."

"Does it matter? Confusion to the enemy. After all, if we can't tell, neither can he."

"Granted. I just don't know if they will stay up during a reset. His best chance of finding her might be right after the reset has been completed."

"Does she have a numbered collar? Can we recall her?" he asked, looking worried, but she shook her head.

"None of the Mashas were given numbered collars. For that matter, none of them were given numbers. They began numbering themselves after a while. We were experiencing trouble with memory leaks at that point, and I believe that they found them bothersome," she explained.

"Yes, Masha... 37, she complained that she kept getting 'lost'. That she would dream vividly of somewhere else and wake up disoriented, not knowing who or where she was," Koschei explained.

"Yes, that makes sense. The entire group was deliberately engineered to be as identical as possible, and the network routes were never adequately shielded, in my opinion. Undoubtedly Rat took advantage of that bond to try and hack Masha-37, to get her message out." She paused. "Which is interesting in and of itself, because my existence was never revealed to any of them."

"And you think that someone with a Time Lord's intellect wouldn't figure you out?" Koschei asked. "She must have hacked the Core Files at some point, which would have given her everything she needed to do all the things that you say she did." He shrugged and then a small sly smile crossed his lips. "Must have driven him round the bend," he chuckled.

"He hates her with the burning heat of a thousand suns," she said.

"Right, then protecting her will have to be put a bit higher on my list," he told her and went back to typing away.

* * *

The Doctor was listening intently to the Dean as Masha finally joined them, Jake standing next to him, arms crossed, and Leela and Andred a step behind them, keeping watch as they all talked.

"Of course our Military History Scholars were most suited to plan our strategies, but they were lacking in practical knowledge," the Dean explained to them. "The History Department is now sadly depleted. So much knowledge and so many brilliant scholars now lost to us all." She shook her head in grief.

Masha slipped into place between Jake and the Doctor, listening carefully. She was a full head shorter than the both of them and her solemn little face looked very young and fragile. It was an illusion, he knew, but an effective one.

"What about the support staff, were they able to defend themselves?" the Doctor asked and the Dean shook her head.

"With mops and brooms against rifles and pistols? It was a slaughter. Their loss was equally great, while not scholars; they were people of great integrity and kindness, who chose to support our Academy with selfless efforts. We have begun evacuating all the students and their families, the faculty, of course, will go in the last shuttles. It is our responsibility to see to our students' safety first." She told them with a quiet dignity and the Doctor nodded. The thin necked, big-eyed scholar could have looked ludicrous in her layers of multi-coloured robes, but instead she looked sure and competent, her courage and compassion making him warm to her. Set against the backdrop of the arches and spires of the university she was ethereal, yet he could sense the core of steel in her.

"We will try to speak to the Gagani and see if they will desist in their attacks, if not, we will keep them from harming anyone else," Jake promised. "I wish you all would stay, though, abandoning your home world..." the Doctor nodded his agreement.

"We must protect our students, Jake Simmonds, Agent of the Shadow Proclamation," she replied and Jake shrugged.

"Doctor," Masha said thoughtfully, "I could... draw their attention somewhere, if you like. Somewhere so they aren't looking at places that are being evacuated."

"We are going to all go together to do that sort of thing, but, I do not hang sacrificial lambs out to be slaughtered," he scolded her, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"Naw, if we get slaughtered, we'll do it together," Jake teased back and Leela and Andred both laughed, while Masha smiled in amusement.

"Suit yourself," she said easily. "Where do you want us, Doctor?"

"The main bulk of their forces are coming up through the Mathematics Department, so let's start there," he suggested and the others nodded. The Doctor pulled up a map from a nearby study area and began pointing. "This is the Main Admin Building, where we are. Over here is the Mathematics Department. We need to fight our way through Anthropology, Linguistics, and Drawing and Fine Arts to get there." They all leaned over and studied the map.

"These look like good set-up points, I can thin them out along here, here, and here... of course," her eyes slid to Leela and Jake, "We'd need someone to mop up the hand-to-hand..."

"No, no! No killing Masha!" the Doctor chided her with exasperation. "We have sleep darts for a reason!"

"Yes, Doctor," Masha said with a perplexed expression, like she didn't quite understand the point. Leela had a similar look, while Jake just looked resigned. Only Andred met the Doctor's eyes with real understanding. The two Time Lords were the only ones who could see the bright glowing colours of the beings around them, to watch that glow fade, to see that light die, was profoundly painful, but hard to explain to their three-dimensional friends.

He suddenly missed Rose with a sharp urgency, wishing she could have come along this time.

* * *

Dar stepped into the chill of the morgue with his genial face on. He made sure to fumble just a bit as he signed the paperwork, beaming around at everyone and generally coming off as utterly harmless and innocuous.

"This way Detective Funicelli," the skinny lab tech told him, pushing her glasses up on her nose. She had the sort of sweet face that made him suspect that she was often taken advantage of.

"Gratzi bella mia," he told her, smiling in an appreciative manner. She must not have known much Italian, for she simply bobbed her head and lead him to the body. She pulled back the sheet for him and he clasped his hands in front of him, his fingers activating the scanners in his watch.

"It's a bit odd, really," she told him. "I mean, he was stabbed, but it was such an odd angle and the serration of the blade was uneven." She peered closely at the wound and he leaned in as well, to observe.

"Puckered around the edges," he murmured and she nodded.

"I'd noticed that too. No bruising though, so not likely a weapon with a hilt," she agreed.

"Your Chief Inspector thinks it was a sword, eh?" he reminded her and she shrugged.

"No bruising," she repeated and he nodded.

"No, it looks like a swordfish attack really," he told her. "But, of course, that is impossible, yes? He was, after all, on the dry land."

"I have a friend who says, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth'," she told him with an expression of grave seriousness.

"You have a very clever friend," Dar replied and smiled at her.

* * *

Masha followed along at a brisk jog, keeping her eyes open. There was fire here and she could hear faint explosions. They were coming up on it.

Jake went silent beside her, his head moving as he spotted, his pistol held loosely, but at the ready. Bella Morte was more a weapon for sitting still in a protected place and waiting for someone to come by, a sniper wasn't much use in a running battle.

Leela had a pistol in one hand and a long knife in the other, while Andred had a short-barrelled rifle in his hands. Masha was pretty sure that the knife did not count as 'non-lethal', but the Doctor was steadfastly ignoring it. Andred and Leela moved together like a well-oiled machine, a team that had fought together a long time. Jake moved with them, but without the same instinctive knowledge of each other that Andred and Leela had.

The first soldier that Masha shot had a machete held high over the head of a screaming child. He fell over with a look of surprise on his face, with a dart between his eyes.

Cover would have been ideal, but she had judged that there was simply no time, and now she stood quite calmly. Two more shots freed two larger beings, she wondered idly if they were the parents, and three more dropped by the time they had turned to face her. Several returned fire, while others surged forwards. They were in the thick of it now and no mistake.

The Doctor was acting to grab up people and move them away from danger, he'd wave his sonic and the enemy's guns would just fall apart, leaving them easy prey for the other three. Leela moved through the frilled lizard creatures like a scything machine, her knife and her gun equally effective. Andred was a cold-eyed metronome, precise and accurate, taking out opponents with perfectly placed shots and moving on with an economy of motion that was quite inhuman. He was a fully trained veteran of the Time War and it showed. He seemed to sense where an enemy would be a moment before they appeared and he simply mowed them down.

He was leaving a pile of unconscious lizards in his wake and Masha noted some of the robed scholars coming in after them, binding the lizards as prisoners and carrying them away. Some of them were even binding wounds and trying to save those that had fallen under Leela's blade. It was a display of generosity and kindness that made Masha almost embarrassed for the body count in her own past.

Leela was having the time of her life, her face gleeful and fierce as she charged in. In a way, she was scarier than Andred, he did the job with frightening proficiency, but she was obviously enjoying herself.

Jake was moving in a way that covered the Doctor, keeping him clear, while the others worked. He was not at their level of mayhem, being only human and far younger, but he fought smart. He used cover well, he kept his eyes open and moving, he didn't try to take on groups alone, and he was a survivor.

All in all, not a bad group to fight beside.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - Working the Odds

Dar had enjoyed his chat with the lab tech. She'd made surprisingly good tea over her Bunsen burner. Without her realizing, he'd used his remote to hack her computer and download all the case notes she'd made privately for herself.

She was very good and he regretted that she'd probably never pass a UNIT psyche test. With a cheery wave, he departed from Scotland Yard and made his obvious way to Heathrow, where he boarded a plane for Italy and then used the Trans Mat recall to teleport out of the bathroom, showing up at Torchwood, where he quickly shed his disguise and went back to Gallifrey, pondering his discoveries.

* * *

Within the first thirty seconds, Masha had used her rifle, in conjunction with Andred's inhuman movements, to take complete control of the skirmish area. Anyone who presented a threat to the Doctor went down first, followed by those that threatened civilians, followed by anything that looked like an officer or anything to do with communications. Then she took out anyone whom she disliked the look of.

For it being only five people, they were decimating their opponents' ranks, leaving the scholars to tie up scores of them in neat bundles, and finally the enemy called a retreat, pulling back into the Mathematics Department Building.

When it was obvious that the enemy had retreated, and they had a breather, she checked her rifle, and then moved to Jake.

"You all right?" she asked him, although it was clear that he was.

"Of course, this is a walk in the park," he teased.

There were soldiers scattered about, their scaly bodies crossed with bandoleers of weapons, their chests rising and falling softly as they slept. The Doctor was leaning down over one who was still conscious, talking to him.

"They are vermin! We merely exterminate the things that overrun our home!" he croaked out in disgust at whatever the Doctor had asked him.

"They are a sentient species!" the Doctor protested. "You can't just come out shooting!"

"It is... what... is... to ... be," the soldier told them, his voice trailing off as he finally succumbed to the drug.

"We'll see about that," the Doctor grumbled.

* * *

Dar stepped off of the Trans Mat into the rich pre-dawn of Gallifrey. The Shobogans were racing across rooftops and treetops, the Flits were winging by overhead, darting hither and yon, looking for the first morning blooms to open. Cakaellia exploded from a nearby tree, their raspy cries mingling with the calls of a dozen other birds. He stopped to watch the way their two pairs of wings beat against the air, their ashy coloured feathers bright against the darkness.

He made his way into the TARDIS, hearing Koschei in his workshop and Susan working in her lab. He stepped into the kitchen and caught Rory asleep at the table, head pillowed on a pile of educational sheets.

He smiled, got himself some food silently and retreated to his office, leaving Rory to his impromptu nap.

* * *

They had just driven the intruders out of the "Drawing and Fine Arts" building, so they had a moment: and Masha paused just to look.

The chance to see art, any art, under any circumstances, was absolutely not to be missed. There would be no art in the Loop when she returned there; this was her last chance to see anything of this sort for an unknown period of time, possibly for decades: and she simply could not pass up the opportunity to allow her eyes to skate around the room, lighting briefly on framed paintings and graceful sculptures, committing them to memory so that she might be able to savour them later.

But she kept an eye on the Doctor at all times, her nerves taut, ready to move out the moment he nodded his head.

He got up; looking disheartened, and looked around at the carnage.

"Right. Let's get moving," he ordered his voice flat and a bit angry. "People aren't vermin," he muttered and strode off towards the Mathematics Department with a scowl on his face and Masha fell into step at his left, Jake slotting in on the right.

Leela was moving ahead of them, sweeping the area, while Andred was behind them, watching their six. Masha hadn't heard any gunfire for a bit and it was making her nervous. Her eyes swept everywhere, up and down, side to side. Why was it so quiet?

She felt, rather than saw, the explosion. Mostly because, in order to have seen it, there would have to have not been a well-muscled shoulder in her face. Jake was on top of her, shielding her from the blast and the Doctor was underneath them both as they'd both tried to protect the Doctor at the same moment. Leela and Andred were crouched nearby, looking alert and ready, the Doctor looked irritated, and Jake looked suddenly embarrassed.

"Sorry, forgot for a moment that you were probably a lot faster than I am," Jake murmured in her ear and then rolled off of her with a wince. His back was lacerated with shrapnel and he looked deeply chagrined. "Damn knight-errant instincts, when will I learn?"

* * *

Dar set his plate down on the desk, settled into his chair and downloaded the data from his watch. Soon, he had three-D models of Charlie's corpse and his apartment. He leaned back and studied the apartment model, reaching into it and taking books off of the shelves, searching under the cushions of his couch, and otherwise ransacking the dead man's place virtually.

He found nothing that seemed of much value to him, so he moved onto the corpse. There was evidence of a slight electrical charge in the wound and Dar considered what he knew about alien races. A swordfish with an electric charge didn't sound familiar to him, so he sent an enquiry to the Shadow Proclamation, hoping that their more extensive knowledge of this universe would solve that mystery for him. While he was at it, he sent another enquiry to some of the few contacts he'd managed to make in this universe.

Then he settled in and hacked into Charlie's computer, using the tiny device he'd attached to the side of the hard drive when he'd been there. He rolled his eyes at the primitive lines of code and grumbled under his breath. It was going to take ages for him to figure this mess out. He began typing furiously, occasionally pausing to eat something as he worked.

* * *

Masha felt her heart stuttering in her chest at the sight of his injuries. It occurred to her that if anything ever happened to Jake, she'd be really upset. This surprised her, because she had always tried to help people, but had never felt this... attached to anyone before. She covered her confusion in seeing to his wounds.

"Dammit Jake! No, don't move! Here, let me see." She glanced quickly around at the others. She, Leela, and the Doctor were unscathed. Jake had the worst of it by far, but Andred had also a little, and hadn't been quick enough to dodge the piece of debris that had embedded itself in his shoulder. It was a single piece of shrapnel, and didn't look life-threatening, but it looked as if it was being tricky to remove. Both Leela and the Doctor were tending to him for the moment, leaving Jake to Masha.

She dug in her pack for supplies. Pulling out the Torchwood issued medical supplies and setting them out.

"I wish Susan was here, but never a doctor when you need one," he chuckled softly.

The Doctor continued working on Andred, while Leela scanned the area, watching out for any further dangers.

"That was set on a timer, I'll bet," Leela grumbled. "Explains why they withdrew so quickly."

"They should be back soon then, to see if they got us," Andred muttered.

"Yep. I'll try and be quick." Masha looked at Leela. "Just try and make sure they don't get the Doctor for the next minute or two, would you?" She quickly attached a painkilling disk and then tweezed out the larger shrapnel bits, before spraying it with liquid skin and sealing it.

He winced, but looked more annoyed by his injuries than anything else.

"Thank you for sparing my dignity," Jake teased and then winced a bit as she flicked out another piece. "You haven't once pointed out that what I did was dumb, which was very kind of you." He was bantering with her, but his hand was still on his pistol, and even as she worked, his eyes were moving along the perimeter, keeping watch.

Something moved and Jake squeezed off a shot from his prone position, taking the lizard down with a single neat shot. It tore one of his wounds a bit, but he'd not moved much at all to do it.

Leela and Andred, now with his wound neatly bandaged, moved to take out the rest of the scouting team, while Leela waved the Doctor and Masha back.

"Let me have some fun this time, girl, you hogged most of the juicy bits last time!" she ordered and the two of them moved to flank the incoming lizards. "Fix the boy!" she called back and then they vanished around the corner as the sounds of mayhem erupted.

"She's having a ball," the Doctor sighed with a rueful shake of the head. "Even hundreds of years on Gallifrey didn't change her at all."

"She's true to herself," said Masha, "Just like you are true to yourself, at least most of the time. You," she said to Jake, "are always true to yourself. Your brave heart just overwhelms your sensible head sometimes, that's all. Are we making any progress at all? It's hard to tell."

"We're making excellent progress, that big building over there is the Mathematics Department and you've managed to make Jake blush a deeper shade of red, than any I have ever seen on him before," the Doctor teased and Jake's flush went a shade deeper still.

"That's just a pain response," the prostrate blond assured them both in a slightly higher pitched tone than usual. The Doctor shot him a look of pure disbelief and rolled his eyes.

"Of course, Jake, we believe that," the Doctor snarked, while Masha scowled fiercely at him. The last thing she needed was him encouraging things between her and Jake when she was going to have to bow out really soon.

"Doctor," she chided. "Stop that. Not staying, remember?" She flicked out another piece and the Doctor sealed it.

"When we get to the Mathematics department, what's the plan?"

"Well, I suspect Leela will cut us a rather messy path to whoever is in charge and then we will negotiate an end to violence here," he told her with a resigned tone. "I do hope she sticks more to the darts than to the knife," he sighed.

"Tell you what, you can do the negotiating, while I sit back and admire your brilliance," Jake quipped and the Doctor laughed.

* * *

Dar rubbed his eyes wearily and stood up, stretching his arms above his heads to work the kinks out of his back.

Charlie's computer was like wading through the cesspool of a teenage boy's sexual fantasies. The late and unlamented engineer had little imagination and too much time on his hands. Still, the calendar function on his computer had been rather useful. He had a nicely complete picture of the man's illicit activities. It was all in code, of course, but a code so easy to break that it was laughable.

He'd been meeting Aislynn about once a month it looked like, fetching components that were obviously for her to repair her TARDIS, as well as meshes that could be used in place of proper hexacrystallic filters. Human technology wasn't exactly compatible with Time Lord tech, so she must have been utterly desperate. He frowned at that, not liking where that left her.

However, Charlie was also making deliveries to two other contacts as well. Those meetings were more frequent and in different parts of town.

The things he was being asked for and was delivering to those two, were on a far different order. This wasn't good at all.

* * *

"Can you stand?" Masha asked Jake. "We need to move or all the good lizard-warriors will be taken," she joked at him, trying to pull that look out of his eyes.

He smiled, then hoisted the pack back on his shoulders, wincing at the pain of it, but then ignoring it, and moving forward, gun out.

"Right, no rest for the wicked, back to work," he sighed out.

"Yup," the Doctor answered. "We should try to save as many of the poor creatures from Leela as we can, he teased.

"OK, Mathematics building, here we come," she looked at Jake.

He looked back, but he was the fighter again now, the survivor, all the pixie sweetness tucked away, while he concentrated on saving lives and stopping the bad guys. There was a moment, very brief, where he squeezed her shoulder lightly, but then he was moving forward again. She felt her pulse speed up at his touch and in that moment Masha finally realized that the sun rose and set on his smile. Which was so just like her, she groused to herself. Her timing had always been awful and this realization was par for the course.

"Hey, wait up! Look right there, between those two bookcases. Tell me that's not a scout." She nodded towards a lizard who was clearly trying not to be seen, whose frill was a much different colour than all the other lizards they had met. The implication was clear: someone, probably in command, had sent someone else to gather a report and inform them of the source of the chaos.

"Bugger," Jake commented and the new lizard, whatever he was, rabbited at once. He was ridiculously fast.

"Dammit!" She spat, and opened fire.

"He hopped down there; it must be an entrance to the underground areas." His hand found hers and held on tightly for a moment.

"I think I hit him but I don't think it was enough to knock him out. I say we follow him. Doctor? Where are Leela and Andred? Do you see them?"

"We won't see or hear Leela and Andred unless they want us to" Jake told her "But, I think following the obvious bait down the rabbit hole is not good strategy."

"Yeah, but it is fun!" the Doctor told them and ran straight at the opening. "Allons-y!" he shouted and jumped in.

"Bloody hell!" Jake swore and then, with the expression of a man who hates himself for what he is doing, he ran after the Doctor.

Masha paused just long enough to pull a Sharpie from her pocket and put a symbol on the wall. Although Masha would never have admitted that she had any artistic talent whatsoever, in a few simple lines she had given the unmistakable impression of the Doctor. Leela and Andred would be able to tell where they had gone.

She followed, keeping them both in sight. Jake caught up with the Doctor and yanked him backwards by the centre seam of his pinstriped jacket.

"Slow it down," he ordered, his voice sharp. "If you're going to be reckless, do it with caution," he added with a sigh. The Doctor laughed and stopped, letting everyone catch up properly and scope out the tunnel.

"Is he always like this?" Masha asked him and Jake paused.

"So, you're leaving in the morning?" he asked and she nodded, surprised by the non-sequitur. "Right. Last chance," he murmured. He leaned in without warning and kissed her lightly, just a soft brush of his lips against hers, a moment of timeless suspension, and then it was over.

The Doctor was reading some inscriptions on the walls, bouncing about in enthusiasm, and apparently oblivious to their private moment, while Masha was reeling in stunned amazement.

"Ha!" The Doctor suddenly said and one of the hieroglyphics depressed under his palm.

All around them, the walls rose, revealing tunnels leading off in every direction. Behind the walls were hundreds of the scout-soldiers, who all seemed to have been waiting for some sort of signal. All of them turned towards the group, raising their weapons. They were now in the middle of a large crowd and hopelessly outnumbered.

"Well, that wasn't quite what I had had in mind," the Doctor muttered, while Jake sighed.

"But, it's what always happens around you, Doctor," he reminded him and the Doctor shot him a weak smile.

* * *

The beep of an incoming message roused Dar from his contemplation of the data and he answered it with a frown.

The face on the screen was round, plump, and bright blue.

"Ah, Darginian my dear friend," the unctuous voice addressed him and Dar suppressed a grimace.

"Dorian! Always a pleasure to hear from you," he lied with a straight face and a big smile.

"It's always a pleasure to talk with you as well," Dorian Maldovar replied and the eagerness in his eyes told Dar that this conversation was going to be expensive. The Maldovar family, Dar knew, would continue for many generations to be an excellent resource, but they would survive through cunning, deceit, and cowardice. Dar looked forward to watching the show.

"But surely, Dorian, a business person of your stature must have such pressing issues to take up your time, I'm honoured by your call," Dar flattered with the smile still in place.

"Well, when a friends makes an enquiry into something and I have learned something that they might find amusing and informative, I feel that the effort to contact them is always worthwhile," Dorian assured him and Dar nodded. No matter which universe you were in, the big blue crook never changed. There was something comforting about that.

"I will certainly try to make it worth your while, Dorian," he agreed with a nod.

"For a small remuneration, I can tell you about a certain Piscean race you've been asking about," he replied, practically beside himself with glee.

"How small?" Dar asked without resentment, after all, this was business and you couldn't blame the other person for wanting to come out ahead.

"In this case, only four thousand credits," he was informed and Dar was pleasantly surprised. He immediately sent the coded transmission that would pay Dorian.

"Not a problem," he told the other, who waited until a beep informed him the money had been received, before he continued.

"The race is obscure, they come from far out on the Rim and they are known as Shhee'tish to themselves, but to the rest of us they're just known as a pain in our arses," he groused. "I'm sending you the information I have on them, for you to look over. I personally look forward to whatever you do to them. They are cold fish, Darginian, no pun intended, they act as mercenaries, but only the most brutal will hire them because they are utterly psychotic, the whole race." He shook his head. "I will be happy to see a lot less of them around really," Dorian confided and then signed off with a wink.

* * *

"You will come with us!" One of the frilled lizards announced and the Doctor, Jake, and Masha, were soon being marched away down the hall.

They were brought to what seemed to be a holding area. There were several cylindrical cells dotting the area: and into these the Doctor, Jake, and Masha were herded. Each of them got their own individual cell: Jake's and Masha's were next to each other while the Doctor's was across from them, almost forming a little triangle.

Their weapons and things were taken and guards were posted. Undoubtedly their things would be brought to the commander, whoever he was, with news that the three had been captured.

Masha spent a moment pacing her chamber, which only took about four steps, and then sat against the wall.

"Hey," she murmured to Jake, who she knew was on the other side, "Can you hear me?"

Yup," he acknowledged and sighed out. "You okay?"

"Fine," she told him, getting manhandled by a few lizards wasn't a problem for her.

Outside her cell, another conversation was on-going, as two of the frilled lizards walked past the Doctor's cell. He could hear their conversation.

"...and you took them alive?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. We will use them as hostages to force the other two to surrender!" The one in charge said with satisfaction.

"Like hell you will," Masha muttered to herself. They had to get out of here.

Masha watched them, getting rather angry.

"Wankers," she growled. "Doctor, are we doing the whole hostage thing? Is that the plan here?"

"Of course not, I make a terrible hostage," the Doctor told her. "Just give me a moment, this isn't a technology I'm familiar with."

The lizards had left the room and that gave Masha and Jake ample time to sit there, bored, watching the Doctor fiddling with his sonic.

"Is this going to take long, because I was thinking about being somewhere else soon," Jake muttered.

"Coincidentally, so was I," Masha said dryly. "However, this cell is probably better, so take your time, I say."

"Yes, Jake, working on it!" the Doctor groused. "A-ha! I've got their security bamboozled for now, let's move," the Doctor told him and the door to his cell swung open.

They slipped from the cells and headed into the corridors that branched away from them. A patrol marched by and Jake darted into an alcove, Masha pressed against him very tightly in the tiny space. He had his gun out and she could spot the Doctor doing something with some wall panels nearby.

One slid open and Leela stepped out, limping slightly, but looking smug.

"Leela! How did things go?" the Doctor asked and the warrior woman shrugged.

"Well, Andred wouldn't let me take any heads, but I did find the way to their command centre, if you'd like the grand tour?" she informed the Doctor and, in spite of herself, Masha couldn't help but smile.

"Sounds good," She grinned.

"Yes, after all what good is a doctor that won't' make House Calls," the Doctor teased and they all stepped into the hidden passageway.

"Well, let me get there ahead of you, I have to give them diseases first," Masha snarked. In spite of her words, though, it was Leela that took point. "Don't hog all of the good lizard men," Masha scolded her as she went by. Leela's low chuckle in response was more vicious than most villains' cackles, and she found herself really liking the other woman.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - Leaping Lizards

They were sneaking through the tunnels, which Masha guessed were some sort of waste disposal tubes, the smell would indicate that anyway, when they abruptly ran out of tunnel.

"Crap," Jake muttered.

"That was my assumption," Andred replied in a dry tone.

"Where to?" the Doctor asked and then looked down. "Oh look! A hatch in the floor! How terribly convenient!" Jake rolled his eyes and looked at Masha.

"Scout it, please," he told her and she nodded. Lying down in the muck, she eased the hatch open and peered through. Masha held up a hand.

"Hold on." She shouldered her rifle, lining up a shot into the room below "He should just… be… in… range…" She didn't know it, but she was sticking her tongue out in concentration.

Because of the darts, the rifle made a ridiculously small noise. The body that fell below them made no noise at all.

However his collapse did not go unnoticed. There was the sound of running feet. Masha swung through the hatch, landing silently, Leela right behind her. Jake and Andred came next, each of them nearly as quiet.

Then the Doctor fell through, landing in a tangle of limbs, knocking over a rack of weapons and cursing loudly. Leela and Masha exchanged a look of long-suffering and Masha hoisted the rifle.

She waved Leela behind her, waiting until a couple of lizards rounded the corner, and then she fired. Jake, Leela, and Andred all got off shots as well and the pair went down in a heap.

"You know, I really want to discuss with you lot the concept of calling for people's surrender!" the Doctor grumbled, as they all took off running.

"Of course, Doctor, we'll talk about it tomorrow," Masha teased and he frowned even more deeply, since both of them knew that tomorrow, she'd be far away.

Dirty mammals!" shouted a rather impressively frilled lizard, wielding a sword along with his gun. Masha shot him, without really looking, and the other three moved through his guards, as efficient as ever.

"We really just wanted to talk!" the Doctor shouted, but the last one was already asleep. "Could you people please stop knocking them all out so quickly that I can't even start a conversation?" he groused and they all did their best to look apologetic. "It's like wandering about with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," he complained. "We have to find the one in charge. We'll never end this unless we can talk some sense into one of them."

* * *

Dar opened the file from Dorian and frowned. The Shhee'tish were a real piece of work. When he'd said they were psychotic, what he really seemed to have meant was that they were completely amoral and had absolutely no regard for any other race. They divided the universe into predators and prey and if you weren't a predator, they would prey on you. Since anyone they could kill was automatically prey to them, it pretty much put them at the top of the food chain in their own minds.

Dar grimly decided that he was going to have to change the hierarchy a bit.

* * *

"Hey! Look there! You see that?" Leela hissed and waved them over. "That door looks very well guarded."

"I think we ought to find out what they all value so highly, don't you?" the Doctor asked and the whole group bared teeth at each other in rather feral smiles. "Without slaughtering or knocking them out first?" he suggested and they all sighed. "I need someone conscious that I can talk to!"

"Let's go," Jake nodded at Masha. "You two have had your fun," he told Leela and Andred. Leela pouted a bit, but Andred merely nodded graciously.

"After you," he told them, like they were at a formal ball and Masha complied with a chuckle and fired the rifle at the guards, feeling a distinct sense of satisfaction as they fell.

Jake waved her forward and they moved closer to the door. He reached into his backpack and pulled out some small lumps of metal.

"Containment field generators," he murmured to her and she nodded. She remembered that he has asked for them, but she hadn't known why. They were at a 'T' intersection with the doorway right in the middle of the intersection itself and she watched in bafflement as he counted out ten of the things into his hand and tossed them down the left branch, then turned and repeated it for the right.

They moved towards the door and once the others were clear, he tossed another ten behind them and snapped his fingers. There was a flicker and the lumps of metal hummed, force fields springing up from them, joining with each other and creating a barrier that sealed off the intersection completely.

Jake took out some grenade looking things and with a smile, pulled open the door, tossed them inside, and shut it again.

"I thought the Doctor wanted them alive and awake?" she commented as the door vibrated against her hand from the force of the blast.

"Just a little flash bang," he assured her with a grin. "No one is hurt, just dazed." He pulled cuffs from his pocket and threw the door open, though staying to one side as he did so. "Shadow Proclamation! You are all under arrest!" he shouted gleefully and they charged into the room.

* * *

The Shadow Architect was listening to them all with a slightly bemused expression.

"So we had a lovely chat with Severer of Heads, Lord of Death, Hikk-ii, who, despite the name is actually quite charming," the Doctor assured her.

Masha tried not to snort. In the Doctor's dictionary, 'lovely chat' obviously meant something completely different than it did in hers. She equated those words with sitting at the cafe and laughing with her friends, not with Leela perching on the chest of a giant, belligerent lizard, threatening to vivisect him if he didn't behave. She also suspected that blood-thirsty intransigent, and arrogant, were better descriptors than 'quite charming', but she figured the Doctor just saw things differently than everyone else.

"And they agreed to vacate the planet, just like that?" the Architect asked, looking utterly flummoxed.

"They saw my point rather quickly," Leela assured her. Masha had to agree with that, Leela's point had been quite hard to miss for Hikk-ii, since she had it pressed against a very sensitive spot, and it had been very sharp.

"They were a warrior culture," Andred added. "Being defeated by so few warriors alone was a bit humiliating for them. We explained that only we five had been sent because it was deemed overkill to send any more against a race so ill-equipped to fight us. They lost the will to argue with us after that."

Masha's contribution was to punch one of the lizards hard enough to dent the wall behind him. She'd pulled the punch too and made sure he knew it. That a scale-less creature half his size had taken out one of his best warriors in a single blow had made Hikk-ii deflate visibly.

"Yes, so, they all packed up and headed off world as quick as they could," the Doctor finished. "I pointed out a lovely uninhabited jungle planet that would suit them nicely and they toddled off." Masha would have described their retreat as more of a screaming mob fleeing for their lives, but she supposed that 'toddled off' would do just as well.

"That's wonderful, Doctor! The Dean sent her praise and gratitude to you as well. So, it seems this problem was neatly solved." the Architect smiled at them and they all nodded and left.

Masha glanced back and saw the Architect shaking her head slowly in disbelief. Masha found herself grinning as she walked away.

They headed back to the Trans Mat, Jake holding her hand, and Masha was pretty sure that she'd just had the best time in her entire life. She looked up at Jake and her smile faltered. What was coming next wasn't going to be nearly as much fun.

* * *

Susan looked up from her work as she heard Grandfather and the others come laughing and clattering down the hall.

"I liked the way the leader cried like an infant when I threatened to cut off his mating equipment," Leela chortled.

"Yes, not exactly an 'A' for diplomacy, Leela," Grandfather pointed out.

"It worked though," Andred replied and Susan shook her head in bemusement and stepped into the hallway.

"Did you all have a nice time?" she asked.

"It was an awesome raid and the planet was really interesting. I met a ceramic scholar!" Masha announced, grinning at Susan. "Got to see some of the wings. Best time in the world."

"Yeah, it was, you know, best time in the world," Jake agreed.

"Koschei and Adie have been working all the time you were gone," Susan told her sadly and the Doctor winced, while Jake frowned.

"Is there anything we can do for you?" he asked Masha.

"You could… see me off I guess," she suggested and the others nodded. She looked sad, and Susan felt horrible, watching as she stooped to pick up her pack again.

Susan escorted them out of the TARDIS and down to Koschei's main workshop, all of them looking rather solemn. The early morning suns were beaming down on the plaza and it all was so peaceful and lovely.

The door opened, and Adie peeped out. Side by side they were startlingly alike, Adie might have been Masha's twin, except that her eyes were hazel and her skin was paler and more pinkish. The two girls looked at each other and then Adie gestured her inside.

The gateway had been set up in the centre of the room. It was a simple device, two tall, thick poles, with nothing in between them. Koschei looked particularly unhappy. Masha didn't have to ask if the portal they would produce was one-way; she knew that it was. It was easy to get something into a loop. Getting out it again was the tricky part.

"We couldn't set it up on the TARDIS," Koschei sighed. "Opening a portal in a dimensionally transcendental space is dangerous and nearly impossible."

"We've located a safe point, such as it is. It's… not very good, I'm sorry," she muttered, looking as though her failure to find a tropical paradise was somehow her own fault, but Masha shook her head. She knew what the Loops were like, after all.

"It's okay. You did the best you could." She picked up her pack and turned to the others.

The Doctor didn't look much happier than Adie, but he smiled at her.

"We were brilliant," he beamed, and Masha beamed back at him. "We were!"

Leela enveloped her in a bear hug, her face sad and fierce.

"You are a warrior of great skill, Masha, and I was honoured to fight beside you."

Masha hugged her back. "It was my pleasure."

"Thank you for helping with this," Andred murmured shyly and saluted her.

She had never saluted anything before, but copied his movements.

"Listen, you take care of this place while I am gone, okay?" He nodded in return and stepped back.

Susan hugged her as well, eyes misty.

"We'll get you back soon, just hang on," she told her.

"I'll be fine," Masha promised her. "This is where I used to live, after all, I know my way around."

"Quite right," Susan agreed with a smile and a firm nod.

"We tried to find the safest place we could," Koschei managed to choke out. "There's nothing ...nothing hostile. Nothing that can hurt you. No standing water..."

"I have a converter." She kissed his cheek. "It's okay."

"Masha…" he started, but she shook her head and gave him a smile.

"Best turn it on, hm?"

Koschei's hand hit the switch and the bars hummed. Suddenly there was another space entirely in between them. Inside the image, the wind howled and blew dust across a blasted landscape. The tops of the shattered buildings burned, would burn forever, because this was how the loop had captured them. The dusty plain was filled with rubble and the wrecks of overturned grav-cars. There wasn't a solid wall in the broken bones of the entire skeletal city. It looked like a ring of Hell, straight out of Dante's Inferno.

Masha looked at the space between the bars and nodded once. Her chin went up and she started to move towards them.

Jake grabbed her hand and she paused, looking at him in surprise.

"I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not."

"I'm not letting you go in there alone! We're partners; we're supposed to stick together."

"Not this time," she told him softly, stood on her toes, tilting her head, and locked him in a fierce kiss, a kiss to make up for all of the things that could have been. "I'll see you around, Jake Simmonds," she smiled at him, threw her pack on her back, stepped between the bars, and was gone.

They could see a last glimpse of her on the other side, walking away, turning up her collar against the cutting wind, and then Koschei turned the gateway off again, and they were alone in the workshop. Jake standing silently, staring at the spot where she had vanished, his face frozen and his eyes like chips of ice.

* * *

Susan hugged Jake and then left the room with Leela and Andred, who both looked rather solemn as they departed.

"Right. What do we have to do to end this and get her back?" Jake ground out, his heart aching and his body tensed. All he wanted to do right then was to shoot something, or get into a really nasty bar fight.

"Convince the Master to stop all of this, or defeat and imprison him," the Doctor told him and Koschei's shoulders hunched in reaction.

"So, who are you?" Jake asked the girl, trying to distract himself from the thought of his partner out there in that howling wilderness. The kiss still burned his mouth, but he was determined not to think about that either.

"My name is Adie," she told him and then fell silent, looking pained. "I'm the source material for the Mashas." She winced visibly to have to say it, but it was the truth. "I am… so very sorry. It was the… the best place that was available," Adie continued.

"If that was the best, I probably don't want to know about the others," he grumbled. "Right. So, where is this wanker and how can we kick his nuts up into his teeth?"

"Please, don't say things like that around my wife," Koschei cautioned.

"Is she out of earshot?" Jake asked, looking around with a bit of nervousness. Susan wasn't someone you wanted mad at you.

"She's gone back to her lab," Koschei told them. "She's got a lot of work to do."

* * *

"I can clean up here, if you would like," Adie offered. She didn't know whether or not Koschei would want to be with Susan right now, but wanted to make the offer in case he did.

"Would you?" he asked, looking up at her with a smile. "I would really be grateful."

"Off with you. Go on now," Adie summoned a smile for him; not a strong one, but a smile nonetheless. To her surprise, he stood up, walked over, and hugged her.

"Thank you." He told her softly, released her, and fled the room, his shyness reasserting itself.

The Doctor watched him go with a sigh.

"He was always a much better person than I was, still is," he sighed. "Very well, now let's talk about ways to stop the Master."

* * *

Koschei paused outside of Susan's lab, then turned, and went to their bedroom. He loved their bedroom. It wasn't because he was a huge fan of Art Nouveau or peacocks, because he wasn't. He honestly couldn't care less about interior design. He dragged his hand along the bedding and then fell forward onto the duvet, burying his face in her pillow and breathing in her scent.

He loved this room because it was a sanctuary. In here, his past couldn't touch them. In this room, it was him and her and everything that they meant to each other, just the two of them.

But, no matter how things turned out, that was ending.

If she could turn the Master, the other version of himself, then there would be a third person in here, in their bed, in their lives, a person that was the living embodiment of all of his past mistakes. If she couldn't do it, if he stayed insane, choosing the path of destruction, then she'd be torn apart by her failure to rescue him from himself. He didn't even want to think about how she would react if they had to kill him. He breathed deeply, trying to soothe his tangled emotions.

He could feel her moving towards him, and then her hand was on his head, stroking his hair.

"If this is going to hurt you...," she began and he shook his head, and then rolled over to look up at her.

"What? You'll let him die or stay mad?" he asked incredulously. "He's me, too, Susan; could you walk away from him?" She hesitated, so conflicted inside that it was painful to feel.

"I couldn't let you die," she whispered, eyes filling up with tears. "I'm sorry." He barked a laugh at that, feeling a bitterness that he hadn't expected.

"Any more than I could ever walk away from you," he sighed. "Let him get within five feet of you, and he'll be throwing you on a bed as fast as he can." He shook his head. "I've never been able to resist you, I always want you, I always need you, and I can't imagine not loving you completely."

"I feel the same way about you," she murmured, tracing his face with her fingers. "I love you so much, that I don't know how to deny you anything. You're everything to me and I could never bear to hurt you." She was sitting on the bed beside him, face anguished and her hearts aching and he wanted nothing more than to be more open and generous than he was feeling just then, but the truth was that he was feeling jealous, possessive, and scared.

"He's me, though, if you don't go to him and bring him back, then he'll be alone, left without you. You were dead and he turned to ice, if you show up and turn him away, it'll destroy him. It'd kill me, if I were in his place, Susan." He was all too aware of just how damn much it hurt to be without her. The terrible craving, the pain, the feeling like your hearts had been ripped from your chest. She was looking at him with a face that told him she was there, in that same place with him.

"I don't want to jeopardize our marriage, not for anything," she whispered. "Gods, Shay, I ache inside for him, for what he's gone through, and what he is going through, but if it meant losing you?" She shook her head, eyes filling up with tears, and he sat up, gathering her into his arms.

"You will never lose me, Susan, never. We are tied up far too closely for there ever to be any doubt about that, all right?" he asked and she nodded against his shoulder. "It's just that when I sent you back in time to be with me, it was still me, I remembered it as me. This version is me, but he's not, and I just don't know how I'm going to feel, having him in our bed, in our life, seeing him over the breakfast table, having him make love to you." he trailed off, feeling his body clenching around her.

"Well, on the plus side, you'll have someone to help you in the lab who'll understand what you're talking about," she told him, looking up at him with a sad expression.

"Fine, he can stay in the lab, while I stay in the bedroom," he whispered and she wrapped her arms around him and chuckled.

"Do you really think he'd agree to that?" she asked.

"Not unless he really was crazy," Koschei admitted, leaning down to kiss her. "You are far too great a temptation, woman," he murmured and ran a hand along her body, following the curves of her with delight.

No matter how many times they fell into each other, no matter how often he saw the sight of her eyes going dark with desire, he never grew tired of it, and never took it for granted.

"As are you, love," she replied and pulled him down to her. "I can never say 'no' to you."

"Yeah," he muttered. "Which is why I'm pretty sure that this is going to happen, love, because I can never say 'no' to you, either." He buried his face in her throat, holding her tightly to him, trying not to think about tomorrow. He had her to himself right then and he meant to take full advantage of that.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Old Wounds

It was calming to work on the TARDIS again. The Master often preferred to be here when time permitted. It was quiet and the ache in his chest wasn't quite so bad when he had his hands deep in the guts of some machine or other.

He had found everything he needed to upgrade his TARDIS, but had no idea where the circuitry had come from. They were clearly for trans-universal compatibility and it would have taken him weeks to fabricate them himself.

But where had they come from? Had the Locus put them there? Surely not, all the controls were isometric. She was able to do minor maintenance on the TARDIS, but that was all. He didn't recall putting such things in his storage bins, but there they were when he had looked, just when he had needed them.

Rassilon, perhaps. He almost hadn't used them because of that. The only person he hated more than himself was Rassilon, if that power crazed bastard hadn't sent him after Susan... Still, he needed the parts and it wasn't like he could pop back to Gallifrey and get more.

He snapped the last circuit in place, closed the access panel, stood up, and crossed to the controls, wiping his hands on a rag. He checked the lights on the piloting boards and nodded in satisfaction. He had full power.

His fingers floated over the console. Lights turned on, and the background hum of the TARDIS changed pitch, becoming higher and louder. "All right," he muttered to no one in particular, "Now we'll see what's what," and brought up the monitoring screens.

The Master was back in business.

* * *

Rose stared at the children in fascination.

"Whose idea was this?" she asked and Freeya looked down at her shoes in embarrassment.

"Mine," she admitted and Rose shook her head.

"Oh, I have no doubt that you came up with the means, Freeya, but I seriously doubt that you were the instigator," she muttered and eyed her daughter.

Jenny looked up at her mother with an expression of beatific innocence.

"It was Jenny's idea," Davian admitted. "But, we all agreed to it and we're all to blame," he assured her and she smiled at him, amazed at how much he'd grown up in the last few years.

"Yes, and you will all be punished," Rose assured him and there were a lot of little round faces looking up at her in despair and misery. "Once I figure out something suitable," she continued with an ominous tone. "All of you are grounded until further notice and I am going to have to have Koschei come and find a way to get Loren and Justinian sorted," she grumbled and sent them all off.

Rose turned and looked into the two boy's bedroom again and took a deep breath. It must have taken the children weeks to set it up. Overwriting the house programs was not easy and how they had managed to coat all the bedroom's surfaces with grease still baffled her.

Rose leaned in and looked up at where the two boys were perched high above the floor, looking down at her with huge scared eyes.

"Are you all right?" she called.

"We woke up and our beds had grown!" Justinian shouted back and Rose nodded. The room's ceiling had been raised by at least ten feet and the beds were like towering trees high above her.

"Yes, I see that," she told them. "I suggest, in the future, that you not harass an engineer, eh?" she shouted up and they edged backwards, looking shamefaced. "I've called Koschei; he should be here in a few hours. In the meantime, just... hang in there!"

Rose left the room, closed the door, and checked the hallway to make sure no one was watching.

Then she dissolved into laughter.

* * *

Adie sighed, took a laser spanner, and walked to the bars, beginning by removing the top from one of them.

"Susan has stated that she can talk the Master down, if she can get close to him, in physical contact I think. Susan is obviously a remarkable woman and I do not wish to underestimate or insult her but… I just haven't been able to envision that."

"Well, that's only because you haven't had the bigger picture explained to you yet," the Doctor informed her, his usual smile gone and his eyes serious. "They are destined bond-mates. It all has to do with the Arkytior, you see," he explained and she paused what she was doing, her eyes flicking up.

"Arkytior… I've heard that term. I have heard it in relation to the project."

"To the project?" The Doctor asked, his face going still and rather scared. "That...," he trailed off and suddenly laughed. "Did you have any lunch yet?" he asked her. "I'm starved! I bet Susan has made cookies! There are always cookies in the kitchen, but she's gotten cleverer at hiding them from me. Shall we go hunt them up?" he asked, the manic schoolboy again.

"No, Doctor," Jake interrupted. "Not this time. Sit your arse right back down and spill it!" His face was fierce and his eyes were hard.

"Besides, I'm… really not all that hungry," Adie murmured, continuing the dismantling of her bar.

"Nonsense! Everyone is always hungry for a cookie!" he insisted.

"Doctor, I just had to watch my best mate, my partner, walk into hell. You are not going to play silly buggers with me, you are going to finish the bloody explanation for once!" Jake insisted and the Doctor sighed out.

"Very well, it's just, hold on." He went to the door and activated the privacy filter. "This does not go beyond us, understood?"

"Of course." Adie's voice was mild and Jake just nodded.

"It's a bit of a long story and some of it I got from a dead woman," he explained, running his hands through his hair. "Aristalandria, an ancestress in the Prydonian line, was also a conduit for the Arkytior. This was millions of years ago, back when Rassilon was made Lord President the first time. The rot in him goes way back you see. He sabotaged Omega, murdered him to get the glory, banished ... others... to get sole credit for founding Time Lord Society, but he wanted something even more than that. He wanted real immortality, to lift himself to the realm of the gods, or at least to become an Eternal. Never to die, never to age, to wield the kind of power that most of us never dream of." He paused, standing for a long moment, staring at some memory. "I didn't see it until far too late, more fool I," he murmured and then shook his head to clear it.

"So, he wanted power and he found a source of it. The Arkytior we call it, the Rose of Life and Death. It, She, I suppose now, is a great power, an immortal spirit, vast, inhuman and sentient in a manner that goes as far beyond us as we go beyond amoebas. That power has a ... need. She is alone and she's lonely. She reaches out to us, here, through a conduit. For reasons I cannot really go into now, that conduit is always a girl of my family line. The genetic trigger is embedded in our TNA and that girl is always a Visionary. You with me so far?" he asked, looking at the two of them.

Adie had stopped dismantling, had stood up, and was looking at him with terrible eyes.

"So far," she said, almost inaudibly. Jake was watching him, his eyes still hard, and he just nodded.

"Once Rassilon had figured out that the Arkytior came through these girls, he found one and tried to strip the power from her. The resulting destruction took out half a galaxy." He paused, eyes bleak, before he shook himself and continued. "The next time a girl showed the power, he tried something else. He'd figured out about the 'secondary component', as he called it. There was always a destined bond-mate, that the girl loved completely, whose very existence provided stability and anchoring to the power. The Arkytior can burn up her vehicle all too easily; the person she was bonded to kept that from happening. Their voice could be heard, even when the Arkytior overwhelmed her. Because of this, that person was protected. Any threat to them and the Arkytior would obliterate worlds to save them." He looked at Adie. "You were very lucky that Koschei is such a good person, she would have burned you down without a thought for threatening him."

By now Adie was pacing around the room, her fingers laced together, the tips of the first fingers at her lips, thinking very hard.

"I fully expected to die during that attack," she said absent-mindedly. "I was extremely surprised when I woke up and discovered that I had lived."

"I imagine so," he chuckled, but there was little mirth in the sound. "Rassilon never gave up hope though. He figured that if he could find a conduit, in the period before she met her destined bond mate, and could bond with her himself, he could become the directing force, crushing her will and intellect and using the power to his own ends. It was the stupidest thing imaginable, probably his dumbest idea yet, and that is saying something, because the Arkytior would never consent to be used that way, she'd have burned up half the universe to punish him for his temerity. It would have been like an ant trying to break a wild mustang!" he snarled, his face twisted in anger. "But he was so filled with ego and pride and the belief that he was superior to all other living things..." he groaned and sighed out. "Never mind, it's too late for Rassilon. We have to deal with what is now."

"Did it work?" Adie asked, looking directly at him. "Did he ever try it? Stepping into the place of a bond mate?"

"No and I took Susan away before the Tower could get hold of her. By the time she was returned to them, she was strong enough to resist. However, he sent the Master in to break her mind, not knowing that he was the one. He was her destined bond-mate and they ... bonded. After that, it was too late. You can't undo that sort of bond and the very bond itself shielded her from Rassilon."

Adie nodded. She was still pacing around, her brows furrowed, very deep in thought. She didn't speak for some time. Her eyes still had that terrible look. He turned and paced away from them, picking up a laser spanner and continuing her dismantling of the gate. He took it apart quickly, efficiently, his hands working with swift precision.

"Adie, tell me what you're thinking," the Doctor asked her, looking up at her with eyes that seemed to scorch her soul.

Adie pulled her notepad, scrolling through the overlays, and then handed it to him so that he could see the pattern inscribed there.

"Did I ever tell you how I came to be... involved in this project?"

"We have only known each other for twelve hours, somehow we must have missed that bit of the introduction," he teased gently.

She looked at him and her eyes seemed dark, almost black.

"To begin, you should know that Aristalandria also has a place in my family tree. Very, very long ago."

"All of the Prydonians are descended from... Well, we're all related," he reminded her, his eyes suddenly going opaque and unreadable as he spoke.

"I'm not a Prydonian any longer. I was stripped of my house and ranking, my regeneration cycles… my name… among… other things." She looked almost ill and it was a moment before she could continue.

"Not to worry Adie, I've gotten along without a name for nearly eight hundred years; it's not something to worry about. As for your house and ranking... that's a bit moot now anyway," he sighed. "Your regeneration cycles can be restored, the Eye of Harmony is here, on this Gallifrey, and we can fix that in a trice. But, I'm still sorry," he told her.

"We may not… want to," she said painfully. "I was a Seer, in the tower. I was one of the ones given the task of breaking down Susan's mind."

"You were taken at eight years old and driven mad, Adie. Whatever you did then was hardly your fault," he pointed out. "Though, I must say, you are remarkably sane for a complete drooling imbecile."

"What I did," she said very quietly, "Was double-cross the seers in an attempt to keep Susan sane enough to be smuggled out by the Master."

"That was very brave of you, my dear," the Doctor told her and his voice was very gentle, like she was a skittish animal he was trying to pet.

"Brave and ultimately pointless, I am sorry to say. The Master smuggled her out but failed to save her; she died several days later."

"But, was it pointless?" he asked her. "After all, in one timeline at the very least, you succeeded, because she is here, sane, whole, and with him. You failed once, but out of how many timelines? The thing is, Adie, I can't recall more than three timelines where she died, and I can recall over a thousand collapsed timelines. So, that means that you succeeded nearly a thousand times and only failed three times. That's not such a bad track record, my dear," he told her and leaned forward to tap the tip of her nose with his finger. "I'd say you were utterly brilliant." She closed her eyes.

"That's an… overwhelming thought," she murmured almost close to tears.

"We never see ourselves as we really are, Adie, we only see ourselves through the shadows of what we think we ought to be. It's not a very kind sort of vision," he murmured and she wondered if he were talking to her or to himself.

"When I was condemned by the Seers, Rassilon himself intervened. You can imagine the fallout. I was removed from the Tower and given to the Master for his project. The project was reconfigured upon my arrival." Her eyes had darkened again as she looked at him.

"Ah, I see where we are going with this," he griped. "I don't like it one bit!" he waved the tablet in front of him, the diagram on it clearly visible. "He knew you had the potential and with Susan dead, you were the next likely candidate, but the problem was always how to awaken that power? Then, once it was awoken, how to harness it!" he cried and began pacing the room, angry and intense, his energy swirling around him like a ball of plasma boiling. "You understand?"

"I don't!" Jake protested, but the Doctor ignored him, his gaze pinning Adie.

"I understand, and Doctor… I can also see where this is going. I don't want to die." The last part was almost a whisper.

"Die? That's the least of your problems, child!" he snapped back. "You could end up with a deity in your head and a hole in your soul!" He turned and resumed his pacing. "This must be counteracted; we can't let him use you for this!"

"More importantly, we can't risk entire stellar clusters that may be destroyed in the fallout, if it goes wrong. The logical course of action is to end it now before that has a chance to come about but, I… I don't want to."

"Oh please, child! I do not tolerate martyrs!" he retorted.

"No more room on the cross, really," Jake snarked. "He hogs the whole thing himself. Besides, it hasn't come to that; there are a lot of other options to work through first."

"Thank you for that, both of you," she looked deeply relieved, but also very embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I'm babbling, that was such a stupid thing to say. I should be handling this better," she sounded slightly hysterical.

"Handling it better?" Jake asked in bemusement.

"Finding out that you are part of a plot to give ultimate power to a madman, two madmen really, and that you could be a walking time bomb, isn't really one of the things that they teach you how to deal with at the Academy, not that you ever got to go to the Academy," the Doctor told her, waving off her apology. "Now, first order of business is locating the Master. We need to find his secret lair, he always has one."

"Should we be checking volcanoes?" Jake asked and the Doctor snorted in amusement.

"No, he's never that obvious. Any ideas, Adie?"

"It's a temporal grace point, connected to the Mobius Loops somewhere. His TARDIS is a battle model, type 100, but custom-made; Rassilon didn't want to take any chances of it being compromised in any way. Heavily armed and with stealth capability, though he can't run guns and shields simultaneously."

"Right, so what we really need is Rose!" he shouted and closed his eyes, speaking telepathically.

"His wife does this special maths," Jake explained. "Rewrites reality or something." He shrugged.

"Block transfer computation is extremely rare… is she a Singer, or a Computationist?"

"I have no idea, but she can't sing a note at Karaoke, so I wouldn't think she was a Singer," Jake muttered.

"Computationist," the Doctor told her. "There are no functioning Singers left alive. Susan is hoping to clone some, but it's a long shot, you know. The exact right things have to happen and that's not really something you can replicate in a lab, though, even if we got some, who would train them? We'd have to send them to Logopolis, I suppose," he sighed.

Adie put her head in her hands, the picture of despair.

"Is there anything left?" she asked, as if dreading the answer.

"There's us," he told her gently. "There's the whole of the Matrix, the Eye of Harmony, the Coral Caves of Karn, and three working TARDIS," he continued. "But most importantly, there are no Daleks, there is no Rassilon, and we have a pristine, beautiful world that we can start over on. We can do it all over, Adie, but this time, we can do it right. We can make a future where the Time Lords are a better, kinder, and more compassionate race than we ever were before. We can help people whom we ignored before, we can have real allies, not just 'client races', and do some actual good out there in the Endless Black. We can bring light into the dark places and make this universe into a place where no one has to suffer the horrors that we have. That's not so bad, is it?" he asked softly.

"No, that's not so bad. I just… just feel like I am drowning, that's all."

"I know it well," he sighed. "We've lost so much. But, I will promise you something, Adie. In this universe, on this Gallifrey, there will never be a Tower filled with mad women, drooling and screaming out the future, do you hear me? I shall never permit such a thing again!" he told her, his eyes burning.

"Thank you. Thank you for that. I'm… sorry for going to pieces."

"My dear girl, screaming, crying, throwing things, and accusing me of having knocked you up, just because I like to watch you suffer through labour, that's going to pieces!"

"Beg pardon?" Rose snapped as she stepped through the door.

"I was talking hypothetically, of course," the Doctor assured her with a faint look of terror crossing his face.

"Of course," Rose replied, but her face was dubious.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – Overwhelming Adie

"Remind me to tell you what our daughter and her friends have been up to, by the way," Rose grumbled. "Right now though, I'm here so what did you need?" she told him and he explained the problem to her. Her eyes unfocused and the curious doubling of her energy intensified. There was a shift and her energy changed completely, in a way Adie had never seen before. The brilliant pillar of light was gone and a subdued, rather elegant pattern emerged. Her eyes focused and she began speaking in Gallifreyan.

"An interesting problem, rather deep," she murmured and her voice was lower, softer, the accent different.

"Can you do it?" the Doctor asked and the teasing tone was gone, he was speaking to his wife as though she were a respected stranger, shifting to a more formal mode.

Adie, recognizing she was looking at someone else, bowed politely.

"Of course I can, but it will take time." She bowed back to Adie, her eyes coolly assessing, but not unkind. "I will need an hour or two, I think, to begin framing the equations. It may take days though to get a final answer." She nodded and settled herself gracefully into a chair. She pulled a sort of abacus device from her pocket and began muttering to herself, clicking beads.

"Right, we'll let her work, shall we? We should start working on the next bit, finding a way to keep Adie here and not have her recalled to wherever the Master is," the Doctor murmured and hustled them from the room. "She'll need to concentrate."

"Of course. Will she require anything? Refreshments? Tea? It seems so rude to leave her sitting all alone. And… who is she?" Adie asked in confusion.

"Oh! Terribly sorry, that was Malla, my dear," he told her, as if it explained everything, and hurried them off to the kitchen. "No, food and drink will only distract her; we'll save all that for when she's done." Jake leaned in and smiled at Adie.

"Susan used a pocket watch to turn Rose from human to Time Lord somehow, don't ask me how," Jake cautioned. "Because every time Susan tried explaining it to me, my eyes crossed. Something about how Rose opened a TARDIS console and looked into it and it scrambled her biology so that she was practically a Time Lord already and just needed a template thingy to finish up. Malla volunteered, or something, and now there are two people in Rose's head, but the upside is that she is now a Time Lord."

"I see," Adie replied, though honestly, she really didn't. She'd never heard of a human being turned into a Time Lord before and she was wondering if Jake had gotten it wrong somehow. "Very well, Doctor, what do you need me to do?"

"I need you to bloody well sit down and eat something before Susan skins me alive for not taking care of you, is what I need you to do!" he barked and put a plate of food in front of her. "Eat something, anything, just please do it now, because I live in mortal terror of my granddaughter's Eyebrow of Doom!" he told her, fetching tea and cookies for them as well.

"I'm really not very hungry but… I suppose I mustn't risk the Eyebrow of Doom," she reluctantly took a cookie and looked at Jake. "Are you all right?"

"I dunno, I'm still in a bit of shock, I think. I'll be okay, once we get her back though. I know that much," he told her and grabbed a sandwich and put it on her plate. "Here, right, eat something, a stiff wind would knock you over." He then grabbed a sandwich for himself and started eating, his eyes distant and thoughtful.

"She'll be all right. She has a converter for water and rations to last for some years."

"Yeah, lots of Chips shops there too, eh? Plenty on the telly to watch, libraries full of books, yeah, it's a bleedin' paradise," he snapped and then took a breath. "Sorry. Not your fault, I shouldn't take it out on you. I just saw how happy she was with a bloody bathtub and how she nearly cried over lights and running water. She was finally somewhere safe, she had a job, friends, she was respected and cared for and we sent her back to hell." He set down the half-eaten sandwich and pushed away from the table. "I'm going for a walk."

"Jake," Adie said.

"Yeah, yeah, all going to work out, sure, sure," he muttered and left the kitchen, the door shutting behind him.

"Leave him be, Adie, he's gone through a lot and he needs time to process it all. I don't think he realized that he'd fallen in love with her, until she had to go, you see," the Doctor sighed out. "I'm too good a matchmaker sometimes."

Adie pushed her plate away too.

"She chose to go back," she said. "I'm so sorry. Omega, I am so, so sorry."

"I'm very glad that she had the choice, Adie. This was the first time that the decision was hers, and even more importantly, that she knew why it was being made. She finally had some control over her own fate and she chose... rightly," he told her, covering her hand with his own.

"Is a cookie and a few bites of sandwich enough to avert the Eyebrow of Doom? I'm feeling rather ill right now," Adie asked rather plaintively.

"Do what I do then, my dear, grab a handful of nutrient supplements from the jar on the shelf over there, swallow them down, and lie through your teeth to Susan. The supplements will make her scanners tell her that you are eating well and that's what she'll go on," he told her with a weary smile.

"Right," Adie took a handful of the supplements and crunched them like candy. They tasted like fruit, which was an odd sensation. Fruit ought not to be crunchy. "Let's get back to work; I can't stand being idle right now."

"Well, we're going to need Koschei for that and he's... busy just now. So, let's go for a tour, shall we?" He stood up and smiled at her, taking her hand and tugging her gently after him, like she was a balloon being pulled along behind him.

"A tour? A tour of what…?" But then he opened the door to a dazzling light, and she was obligated to stop in her tracks, shielding her eyes. "Sunlight? I haven't stood in sunlight in two hundred years…."

"Well then, you are rather overdue," he told her and pulled her out into the plaza. They were on Gallifrey, in the Plaza that was in front of the Panopticon, she recognized the general shape of it, but everything was different. The Panopticon itself was smaller, but more beautifully decorated, the plaza was filled with people, but very few of them were actually Time Lords.

Both of her hands flew to her mouth. Her cheeks were suddenly wet.

"It's… it's really gone, isn't it?" She hadn't truly believed it until this moment.

"Gone, yes, but still here regardless," he told her gently.

She buried herself in his chest, for a moment, like a child seeking reassurance, and he wrapped his arms around her protectively, patting her back.

* * *

Donna watched Loren and Justinian carefully as they came out of the bath. It had taken Koschei quite a bit of time to get them down and to return the room to its previous state. They'd been surprisingly docile since then and Donna was suspicious.

Freeya and the others seemed merely relieved to not have the two boys teasing and harassing them at the moment, but Donna was a veteran of human schools and therefore had a nasty, suspicious mind.

Justinian put his head down and pulled away from Loren, who tugged at him, whispering in his ear. The jet black hair and sharp blue eyes of Loren contrasted with Justin's washed out grey eyes and limp brown hair. Donna kept her head down over her tablet, pretending not to notice them.

"Come on, we need to get her back! That Low House brat and her freak friends do not get to mess with us!" he hissed and Justinian shrugged.

"She's smart though, and the adults are on her side, it's not going to be easy," Justinian protested weakly.

"Well, we'll just have to be smarter," Loren muttered and dragged the shorter boy outside and away from Rose's hearing.

"A lot smarter, if you want to get past me," Donna grimaced and put her blackberry away, thinking hard.

* * *

Adie stood stock still, looking around her with a darting uncertainty.

"I can see that it's beautiful, but… I don't know if I am ready for this," she told the Doctor.

"I understand," he told her.

"Doctor! There you are!" a voice addressed them. "What have you done with my best agent?" Adie turned to look and met the gaze of a human male, balding with wisps of ginger hair, and bright blue eyes.

"'Ello Pete, yes, I'm sorry about Masha," he told him.

"Masha?" Pete blurted out incredulously. "I'm talking about Jake! You got him a perfect partner, someone who wasn't going to die horribly on him, and then you send her off somewhere and don't try to tell me it wasn't you, because I know you far too well!"

"Right. We found out that Masha was a focus for a deadly alien weapon that could potentially destroy Gallifrey, so we sent her somewhere she would be non-threatening, until we could sort that all out."

"We do hope to be able to extricate her… someday," Adie finished rather awkwardly.

"Well, get on it! Jake's my best agent and I can't have him moping about!" he snarked.

"Perhaps Jake ought to be assigned a new partner for the time being…?" She didn't sound very certain.

"He won't take one. He let Rose partner him because she was his friend, but he really hasn't had one since Mickey left. Before that it was him, Rickey, and Mrs Johnson, but those two are both dead now. Everyone he ever had died on him, you see, or left," Pete explained. "He won't get close to anyone else, not for a long while."

Adie looked thoughtfully at the Doctor.

"You know, I wonder if it would be possible to set up communication with that loop? We couldn't keep the large gate assembled, far too dangerous, but perhaps a small one? Maybe he would feel better if he could write a letter or send a care package or something?" She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"A sort of mail drop? Brilliant! Oh Adie, that's genius!" the Doctor enthused.

"Not yet it's not, we haven't the hardware. I'm permitted in Koschei's workshop without him, let me see what I can arrange." She turned and headed back into the TARDIS.

"Excuse me!" the Doctor called out, hands on his hips. "Aren't you forgetting something? I happen to be an utterly brilliant engineer!" he reminded her.

"Nice to meet you, Pete," she called as she entered the TARDIS, smothering a giggle with her hands.

"Oi! I am so going to tickle you, young lady!" the Doctor shouted and ran into the TARDIS, leaving Pete behind them.

"Nice meeting you too, Adie!" he called out and with a grin on his face, went off to find Jake.

* * *

Time ran much faster in the Loop and, while only a few hours had passed for Jake and the others, more than a week had passed for Masha.

It took Masha four days to scout the right spot to begin a shelter, and another four days to gather a suitable number of stones to begin it.

After extensive exploration in her immediate area, it seemed that Koschei had been quite correct; there was nothing here that could hurt her. There must have been people who once lived in a city this large: but there was no sign of anyone. No sign of bodies. Nothing.

She had been very discouraged to come back here, though she hadn't wanted anyone to know; the thought of slogging back through horror and death had been very disheartening. But now she realized that this was just a wilderness; harsh, and with a terribly frightening appearance, but nothing worse.

With a grim feeling of loneliness, Masha set about surviving.

* * *

The Master stared around the control room. He'd buried his unhappiness in working on his TARDIS, but she was fixed now and he was feeling... lost. For so long his goal had been to defeat the Doctor and take over the universe, but Gallifrey, and presumably the Doctor, were gone and dead. He was alone. He could take over this universe, but, without the Doctor there to see and despair at it, where was the fun? Besides... he frowned, trying to understand his sudden reluctance.

He was the Master, after all... wasn't he? He shook his head, trying to clear out the conflicting impulses in his mind. He had the urge to go to New San Martine, see if the house was still there, maybe lie in the bed and think about a woman long dead.

He jerked away from that thought and looked around the room desperately. His eyes fell on the screens and control panels for the Project. He could do something with it, he mused.

He turned on the screens, spun everything up, and was shocked at what the screen showed. He ought to have expected it, of course, it was bound to overgrow, but the whole thing was a tangled mess. He could just walk away from it, he supposed.

That thought stopped him cold. What would he do? No war, no Daleks, no Gallifrey, no Time Lords. No Susan. He envisioned the idea of endless and aching Time on his hands, time he would have to fill doing… something. Anything. How long could he bear to wander around the TARDIS, alone, with no direction?

He had technically never completed the project. Finishing it out would give him time, time to think, time to decide how to try and grind out the centuries allocated to an endless and empty life.

Fine, then, he decided, he might as well putter around with it for a while. He could start with a clean-up…

Suddenly he realized that he was looking at an extra seven network points.

And then he saw it, a door opening and closing into the Möbius Loops. Someone was mucking about with it.

Irritation flared in him at once.

"That damned Rat!" he muttered.

The workings of that damnable biological, the mess she would make out of his neat, precise designs, setting up false network points, and now she was opening damn doors! The Rat was one of the few things left capable of generating a genuine emotional response from him. His anger at her was all he had left, besides the endless aching regrets.

"I'll get you, anyway," he decided, and his hands moved over the controls with rather more force than he had intended.

* * *

Adie was accustomed to working quietly for days on end, but designing something with the Doctor was an entirely different experience than designing something with the Master or Koschei. The Doctor was boisterous and silly, but underneath it he had a keen mind, and with some careful study, she discovered she could begin making sense out of his rather unkempt presentation.

For all of their differences, Koschei and the Master had set up their workshops with some surprising similarities, and she moved easily around.

"The problem," she said, as they were assembling the final box which would be able to hold and transmit a small package, "Is that there is no way to get anything out. It would be nice if she could respond somehow, don't you think?"

"It would, but there is absolutely no way. That's strictly a one-way trip. Koschei had to work miracles just so we could see through Masha's gate."

"Well, perhaps he'll still be happy with it…" She closed the lid and was satisfied at the firm 'click' it made. "Would you like to present it to him, Doctor? Or shall I?"

"We'll do it together, eh? And I can give you that tour of Gallifrey on the way! If you are ready, that is…"

Adie nodded. "I think… I think that maybe I am," she said shyly.

"Well then," the Doctor picked up the box and put it under his arm, then offered his other arm to Adie. She took it shyly, and they headed out.

* * *

Donna slipped out of the Trans Mat station and headed for the school, thinking hard. Justinian was a weak boy, who followed after Loren with the air of a whipped dog following it's master, so she concentrated on keeping track of Loren.

Justinian broke off from him suddenly and ran away, his face splotchy. Donna paused, wondering which one to follow and finally she turned to follow Justinian. Loren might get up to no good, but Justinian had been crying and Donna felt a tug of sympathy for the skinny, weed-like boy.

She followed him into the grove of silver leafed trees and watched as he threw himself on the ground, looking despondent, tears leaking down his face.

She sank down beside him and he jerked up, looking at her with a frightened expression.

"You all right, there?" she asked and he hastily wiped away his tears.

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"So, you're crying alone out here, because everything is perfectly fine?" she asked softly and brushed the hair from his face with a gentle hand. He looked up at her and something inside of him just broke. He threw himself into her arms and began to sob.

Donna knew that the Doctor joked that she was like a cat lady, only what she took in was stray Time Lords, but she also knew there was some truth in it. She had a big heart and hated to see people in pain and suffering. No one around her was suffering more than the Time Lords right now, so that's where she found herself helping the most. Now, she wrapped her arms around the sobbing child and comforted him.

"It'll be all right,' she soothed.

"I don't know," he told her.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked and he shook his head. She could tell that he wasn't ready to talk, so she just rocked him, holding him against her, letting his sobs quiet slowly. He was only ten years old and he'd gone through more than many people five times his age. She didn't know what was eating at him, but she knew that he needed her and that was enough.

* * *

Adie stopped at the threshold of the TARDIS for a moment, looking around, then took a breath and set foot onto this new Gallifrey. She had the Doctor's arm and unknowingly she was clinging to it very tightly.

"Strangely enough, Adie, my arm actually requires blood to circulate for proper functioning," he told her in a gentle tone, eyes dancing. She jumped and let go, nodding, and swallowed hard.

"Er… sorry," she said. "It's… really beautiful," she said shyly. "You built all of this?"

"Not by myself, no," he chuckled. "The thing is..." he looked around frowning. "Most of it was here already."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when we got here, the Panopticon, most of the city, a proto version of the Academy, it was all here already, half destroyed and long abandoned, but here. We found traces... well, we have no idea really what happened to them, why they died out, if they died out..." He frowned even more deeply looking down at the exquisite mosaics that covered the walkways. "It's a mystery. I keep meaning to go back, but... things keep happening." He shrugged and she nodded, seeming overwhelmed at everything she was seeing.

"The Master took me to Gallifrey many times. It always seemed as if it was burning. This seems… almost cool."

"Well, you should see it at dawn, when the suns come over the horizon and the silver leaf trees reflect that light, making it look like the forest is on fire," he told her, his eyes alight.

"It's all gone," she murmured. "It's really all gone. But this… doesn't seem so bad. Perhaps it's not as different as it first appeared." She had been all but pressing herself into the Doctor's ribcage when they first walked out, but now she was gaining some confidence, looking around at buildings and plants. "I think… I think I could learn to like it here," she offered shyly.

"Well, I hope so," he chuckled. "It's the only home I can offer you, unless you want to live in a really nice flat in Chelsea," he mused and she smiled.

"Well, how does one go about… applying for residency, as it were? I can't just stay in Koschei's workshop," she gave him a rueful smile, "It's full of spanners. He'll be too terrified to sleep."

"Well, you could always ask your Head of Line to give you back your old bedroom, you know?" he replied gently.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – Reset

Adie wasn't looking at the Doctor directly at that moment: her gaze had been drawn by a fountain.

"I don't have a Line any longer," she murmured absent-mindedly.

"The Head of Line determines things like that, and I am the Head of Line now. My idiot brother's death, left me as my Mother's only living child. Therefore, if I say that you can have your old bedroom back if you want it, then that's that." he told her with a small frown. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't recognize you, child? I used to bounce you on my knee!"

She turned to him, her eyes wide, surprised.

"Did you?" She shook her head. "I… I don't remember… I'm sorry." She looked at him a moment longer, as if struggling with herself; but then threw her arms around him in a hug. She didn't know what to say. He held her tightly against him, cradling her close.

"I fought it, you know, so did Mother, we begged and pleaded, by my brother was a nasty, awful, pompous windbag and my father was even worse. I am so sorry, Adyra, I really, really, am."

She clung to him for a moment, but when she drew back, there was a smile on her face, or at least something as close to a smile as he had yet seen on her.

"Thank you," she said. "I don't remember much before the Tower. I guess knowing that… makes me feel a little less lost. Does that make any sense?"

"Perfect sense. You may call me Uncle Theta, if you wish, Uncle Doctor is a bit odd sounding, which is really something I should have taken into account back then, but I was really quite young and not thinking that far ahead. After all, we'd just... well, things were a bit chaotic."

"I imagine they were. Of course, they are just a bit chaotic now," she chuckled.

"It does seem to be my lot in life," he told her with a contented smile.

She walked with him in silence for a while, her face thoughtful.

"Thank you for showing me this. Seeing it… I feel better about it all. It doesn't seem as big or intimidating as it did from inside. The more of it I see, the more of it I like."

"Yes, I didn't keep as close an eye on things as I ought to have before," he mused aloud, his eyes sweeping the area with gaze that she didn't quite understand. "Things got a bit out of hand, but this time, I'm going to make it come out the way we intended it to. Yes, much better now. None of the errors we made before, like with the Minyans." He nodded decisively.

"Yes," her eyes were now sparkling in amusement, "None of those worn-out old errors for us! We will make entirely new errors!" He laughed at that and looked down at her with a grin, that strangely introspective look gone from his eyes.

"Errors no one has ever made before!" he assured her.

"Errors that will be the envy of all of our neighbours!"

"Well, of course! After all, if you're going to bugger something up, always do so spectacularly!" he assured her.

She almost, almost, laughed. Not quite, but it was close.

"Now, shall we find Jake and give him his present?" he asked with a little boy smile of mischief.

"Following you, Uncle Doctor," she grinned mischievously and he winced.

"Told you that it sounds awkward," he replied and guided her along the curving pathways towards the Torchwood housing complex.

She hastened to follow. She wasn't yet brave enough to walk too far away from him; but she was still smiling a little. The tour had made her feel much better.

The Torchwood buildings were square with triangular roofs, unlike the curving domed homes she was used to. The roads between them were mostly straight and the grass was... green. In fact, all the foliage was green, though the orange of the suns tinted it odd shades. The Doctor waved at the gate guard and they wandered in, headed for Jake's.

His house was on the second floor, with someone else's home beneath it, and the Doctor bounced up the stairs, whistling. Adie followed, blinking at her surroundings. Everything was so… green. He knocked on the door and a moment later the door opened.

Jake gave them a weary smile and let them in. Pete had been right, he looked terrible.

Glancing around his apartment, Adie was a trifle confused. How many weapons could one person collect and what were all the wall decorations, sculptures, etc. that covered every surface. For instance, what War was the Star Wars and why was that young woman clinging to the leg of the fellow with the very bright torch?

"'Ello Jake,"

"Hello, Doctor, Adie, tea?" he asked.

"Thank you, I brought you something. Well… the Doctor and I did," Adie told him still a bit boggled by all the tiny figurines and odd weaponry. "We made you this." She set the box in front of him, while the Doctor went into his kitchen and began rummaging for tea things.

"A box! You shouldn't have," he teased and she smiled at him.

"It's a mail drop."

He stared at her in confusion for a bit and then illumination dawned.

"A mail drop to hell?" he asked.

"A mail drop to hell," she agreed. "There's no possibility of a return message, nothing can get out, but we can slip things in. Anything that can fit in that box can be sent across." The box wasn't very large.

He grinned at her and ducked his head.

"I'll figure something out, not to worry," he assured her.

"No doubt," the Doctor snarked and brought mugs of tea out for everyone.

"Just… no explosives, all right? No weapons in the railgun classification, nothing like that," Adie requested.

"You ruin all my fun," he teased.

"I doubt that," she snarked. "Bring it to Koschei's workshop and he'll post it for you, okay?"

Jake hugged her, face buried in her hair.

"Thank you, Adie, really and truly," he murmured in her ear. "You're the best."

Startled, Adie hugged him back, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

"Tea!" the Doctor called and Jake released her, apparently unaware of her sudden discomfort. Hundreds of years where she had received no affection, no approval, and now she was being drowned in it.

Adie took the teacup from the Doctor and held in front of her, a talisman to protect her hearts from the intensity of emotion around her, an intensity she was ill-equipped to handle.

* * *

Aislynn kept the box with the laptop locked up for another two days before opening it again.

By now the number on the scanner was well into triple digits. A small banner had been added to the readout. She had overridden the banner some time ago, but by now the readings were high enough to nullify the override, and the banner had returned, flashing insistently at her.

She ran over her situation again for what was easily the thousandth time. She was on a planet where no one knew the first thing about her race. A race which had been decimated by the Time War. She was astounded at the idea that a doctor might have survived. She doubted that there were any more. She couldn't imagine how overwhelmed they must be. That was assuming that they even wanted to help her, since so many doctors had been killed by the Infected during the War.

Then there was the matter of the Agent himself. It had been the job of the Celestial Intervention Agency to hunt the Infected down, and end them. He must have realized she was mostly in control of her faculties, since he had permitted her to leave the bookshop, but that assessment could change at any time. Particularly when faced with a request for extremely specific medical gear.

The banner continued to flash as if demanding attention. "Seek Medical Help At Once," it blinked at her.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was caught between a rock and a hard place. If he decided to come after her, and was successful, it wouldn't be cutting that much off of her life at this point. If she couldn't get what she needed, she had six weeks left, eight at the most. But she still wanted to live for those six weeks!

No. It had to be done. Her equipment was suitable to manage for a long, long time, if only she could get her hands on the proper filters. It wasn't a pretty solution, but it was workable, and it would suffice. She braced herself with a cup of tea, and then typed out:

"Hexacrystallic filters, at least grade 7. Prefer grade 9 or better."

She left it on the screen for two hours before she was finally brave enough to hit "Send."

A "kill" command was likely to be authorized the instant that message was received. There was nothing she could do, but make sure her affairs were in order, cross her fingers, and hope for the best.

* * *

Masha frowned at her tablet when it began to beep at her.

There was no reason for it to beep. She shook it in annoyance, but the beeping didn't stop. Opening it, she realized that the GPS had activated itself, and that made no sense whatsoever. How could GPS be active? There weren't any satellites! For that matter, there weren't any celestial bodies at all, as far as she could tell.

Still, the point made her curious. It was definitely a location. She got up from where she had been working at cutting neat stones to place around the walls of the stone hut she had constructed, got on her outer things, and went into the howling dust storm.

It took most of the day to trek out to the location indicated…. and it had a light! A blinking light! She couldn't imagine what it was; nothing was lit in the entire broken city, except for the flaming buildings.

The blinking thing turned out to be a box. It said, "Masha," and she recognized the handwriting as Jake's. Jake! She couldn't believe how clever he was! How had he managed to get a box all the way out here?

But it was definitely a box, and definitely had her name on it, and she smiled like an idiot all the way back to the hut. Inside she discarded her outer clothes, shook out her hair, and then darted in, set it on the stone that served as a table, and ripped off the wrappings.

There was an electronic thing, a Kindle, with a sticky note stating that Koschei had sent an atomic battery that would last a thousand years. There were photos, and she laughed at the sight of them. Jake sitting on a Weevil and Leela sitting on ten Weevils; a vacation on Mars; Jake, Mike, and Cassie all making ridiculous faces at the camera lens. And a letter.

She read the letter, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed. She might be living in a little stone igloo in the middle of the Apocalypse; but at that moment she felt like the Queen of the World.

* * *

Dar had already assembled the parts for Aislynn's TARDIS. He had them on a float pallet and he was sitting at his desk, staring at a map of London, trying to come up with a drop point that he could leave them at, some place she would feel secure about visiting to pick them up.

His e-mail alert hummed at him and he turned and looked up. The circular Gallifreyan cascaded down and his hearts stopped. He sat there for a long time, trying to decide what to do. If she was this far gone, she was a danger to everyone around her. He had to tell Susan, the Doctor, someone... but he wasn't sure that they wouldn't risk themselves in some stupidly noble way. It was his duty to go and kill her and immolate the body.

His hands fisted on the table and he got up. There was someone he needed to talk to.

* * *

A bell sounded on the computer relay system that they had cobbled together, and Adie's eyes flicked up. She drew a sharp breath.

"Damn it all! The Master! He's resetting. And without Koschei I can't access any of the controls."

The Doctor looked up and nodded, his eyes unfocused as he spoke telepathically to someone and then he gave her a mischievous, little boy grin.

"My, my, Koschei does know some really foul words!" he chortled. "But he's on his way."

* * *

Dar pushed into the Library and looked around. The bulk of the Academy loomed up beside it, visible through the windows that curved and swirled across the North wall. The rest of the walls were covered in racks of data servers, crystal matrix computers, data storage cubes, and even a few real books. The centre of the room was filled with comfortable chairs and workstations. Above it all, the ceiling dome was covered in a huge mural, iridescent birds fluttering in holographic splendour across an orange sky, the suns glinting on their wings.

He glanced at it only briefly though, he was on a mission at the moment. He searched the work tables until, tucked away at the back, he found who he was looking for.

A lean and broad shouldered Time Lord, with striking blue and gold eyes set in a weathered and tanned face, looked up at him wearily. He was good looking, not spectacularly handsome or anything, just pleasant, with a face that looked as though it had once been used to smiling a great deal. He was simply dressed, a plain white shirt, khaki slacks with pockets everywhere, and scuffed brown boots.

Dar approached him carefully, Taydin was one of the few adult survivors of the Time War and he was one of the most injured of them. Once a Singer and a Scout, he was now a librarian, burying his past amongst the stories and histories of others. Dar was one of the few who knew the truth about him and, in fact, knew more of the truth then even Taydin did. He wondered sometimes if he should tell the other man, but he never did. The ex-officer and diplomat, the man whose persuasive voice and solid integrity had been so abused by the leadership of their world, was finding peace now and Dar was wary of stirring up the past.

"Taydin," he called softly and those searching eyes met his own. "I need your help," he cajoled and the Scout frowned, dropping his eyes back down to the screen he was reading.

"I've found another Singer and she's in trouble," he said next and those gold flecked blue eyes shot up to search his face. After a moment of intense thought, Taydin shut off his reader and stood, waiting.

Dar led him out of the library at a quick pace, explaining in an undertone as they went.

* * *

A few moments later, Koschei barrelled into the room and threw himself at the computer.

"Adie, what do I do?" he asked and she chose not to comment on the fact that his shirt was un-tucked and he was barefoot.

"Keep in telepathic communication with me. Log into the remote terminal where you were before. We're not going to be able to stop a reset remotely. The problem is what is going to come after the reset."

"I'll start up the monitoring system," the Doctor told them and began running about, turning on the system that Adie and Koschei had designed to keep track of the well-being of the Mashas.

"Right, have you ever worked in gestalt before, or should I keep it surface?" Koschei asked.

"Well, not while I was sane, but do what you think is best," Adie replied, a bit startled by the question. It took a lot of trust to bring someone into gestalt with you.

In a moment, she had been swept into his wake. It was like standing on the beach and having a huge wave come and crash down on you. Except that it was a wave of light and warmth, that wrapped her up and buoyed her back to the surface, she was tugged along into a slipstream, just on the surface of the vast deeps of his intellect, but not being pulled under.

Susan was there too, another stream of light that merged into him and supported her as well.

Staring down into the whole of him she suddenly felt rather small and fragile, he was so much more than she had ever imagined. The depths of him were filled with a golden light that sparkled and glowed. He was vastly complex, but, she realized, for all that there was darkness shadowing him, he was utterly beautiful.

She stared into him, wondering if all this was inside of the Master as well. All this time, had this been trapped inside of the ice of the Master's soul? It was hard to believe, but she was seeing it for herself and the thought caused a sudden surge of pity for him. He was still a dangerous madman, but he was a dangerous madman with diamonds in his soul.

He seemed to sense her unease and shifted her to a place where the vast weighty bulk of him was mostly hidden.

She could still feel his thoughts, the running river of them, as well as Susan's low hum of presence, but now she could focus on the work.

/What first? / Koschei asked her.

/Here… he's starting from the top. / The network map seemed almost to have caught fire, burning. /It's going to go very fast… here… here.../ She was directing him, trying to keep ahead of the line of the burn.

The Doctor meanwhile monitored the vital signs of the Mashas, his face creased in worry.

"Come on girls," he murmured. "Stay safe now."

* * *

Dar watched Taydin read through the files and the requests. His habitual frown was etching itself even more deeply into his face as he sped through the data.

Taydin leaned back in the chair and tapped the request for the filters.

"I know," Dar answered and turned away. "She's a Singer, though, we need her!" he growled and Taydin nodded, his face stony. "I know that I ought to, I do, but I just can't!" he ground out. "There has to be another way."

Taydin flipped through the data and pointed at one particular entry. Dar leaned in close and studied it.

"Oh, you beautiful bastard," he muttered and ran for Susan's lab.

Behind him, Taydin looked amused and then bent back over the files.

* * *

Masha -31 leapt the ravine, her legs pumping furiously. Behind her she could feel the ground crumbling. The reset was devouring her world. Ahead of her was the shimmering line of a bridge, but the wind was pulling her backwards.

The ground was cracking, stones rising up and then being sucked into whirlwind beyond. The clouds shredded themselves as the sky developed alarming cracks. There was no time to be timid: the ground pulled away from under her feet, and she leapt for the Bridge with all her might.

* * *

Masha-14 couldn't help but watch in fascination as the world unravelled, pulling upwards and backwards into the point of light. The swarms of Hrix buzzed furiously but they were too small, and clouds of them obscured the point, making the light flicker and dance with strange shadows.

The ground had unravelled almost to her feet before she remembered to turn and run.

* * *

It was the sound that Masha-64 found to be the most difficult to bear. It was a roaring, whirring, screeching sound, like fingernails on some cosmic blackboard. She wondered if it was actually the sound that was tearing apart the world, collapsing the sky in on itself, crumbling the earth to dust.

The bridge was there, at the base of the cliff, the sea whooshing nearby. There was no time to be subtle. She launched herself into space just as the cliff side crumbled away under her heels.

* * *

It was just like flying, mused Masha-52. The tornado had gotten too close, and the winds had picked her right up. She wasn't really flying, she knew that, and yet she found herself spreading her arms and trying to ride the winds, completely unsuccessfully.

It was sheer good luck that the first object to hit her was the burnt-out hulk of what had been a car, not sticks through her eyes or pieces of shrapnel through her body. The car was empty, hardly a hull, but it still outweighed her by a good margin, bumping her hard enough to fling her right out of the vortex. She landed on her tail, hard, and scrambled to her feet. The ground was full of holes here, and through the holes she could see stars.

She ran.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – Blind Trust

The notebook beeped at Aislynn. It was a pleasant, muted sound, like it was politely clearing its throat.

Aislynn scowled at it ferociously. She had forgotten to put it back in its shielded box. No telling how long it had been sitting there. It could have scanned everything she owned by this time. It was a bad mistake, and one did not make bad mistakes with the Celestial Intelligence Agency, not if one wanted to keep breathing, anyway.

Well, nothing for it now. She reached out, gathered it in, and flipped it open.

There was a message.

It started out with a map of London and an 'x', but the rest of it was musical notation. Not the sort for a symphony or concert, but the very specific notation used by Singers when they were Singing. It was a chunk of Computational Music. She leaned back in her chair, her breath escaping her for a moment. Another Singer had survived the War. She hummed her way through the piece. It would help to counter the side effects of the anti-contagion chant, she realized with relief.

She took a closer look at the map. The 'X' was at a pier along the Thames. It was a place with excellent sight lines, where she could see anything that might try to sneak up on her and where she would be very, very visible.

She got up, threw her coat around her shoulders, and headed outside. Summoning a taxi, she gave the appropriate address.

The cab pulled up at the pier and she saw a box with a red 'x' painted on it. The float pallet was turned off, but still present. There was a perception filter on it as well; no one else could see it.

She activated the hover controls, and threw on few more shields. Of course, the Agent likely knew exactly where she was, so her precautions might be pointless, but at least they made her feel better.

Having set up the box for transport, she walked it through the streets, pushing it gently and following it. She planned to take a very leisurely pace; it was a long walk and long walks were difficult nowadays.

As she walked away, she caught a glimpse of face that she had seen often during her schooling and then later on, on news broadcasts.

"Scout Commander Taydin," she murmured, but he was already walking briskly away.

Aislynn pondered the visitation as she walked. Scout Commander Taydin had quite a reputation, and she felt comforted in knowing that it was he who had survived the War. If he had appeared in person, it seemed unlikely that she was to be assassinated; and there was something in that.

Long walks were not the thoughtless matter they had once been in the past. She was so exhausted by the trip back home that she collapsed into a chair and went to sleep at once.

* * *

Koschei responded to Adie's directions at the speed of thought and together they worked in lock-step, his hands moving to her direction. The Doctor worked behind them, carefully watching the life signs for each of the clones.

It was hard work. The burn came with little consideration for the clones. She was helping him move them out of the way, but there were so many. In spite of their best efforts some of them ended up too close to the reset: these flared and then dimmed drastically.

"What's happening to them? Are they all right?" Koschei asked desperately.

"None of their vital signs has dropped off," the Doctor replied.

"Bridged, but stunned, they'll probably be out for days. Depends on their circumstances when they collapsed." She caught her breath. "There she is. Damn, he's found her."

A lone dot was on the network, moving fast. The dots nearby it had vanished when the reset had passed over them. At that moment, they were at the correct number of points.

"He's collapsing the Möbius loops in her area."

"Can we get her out?" he asked, moving to counter the commands as fast as the Master was issuing them.

"We can't do anything direct, she's got us locked out, same as him… she'll need a bridge, get her a bridge, anywhere, quickly, before the whole cluster collapses… she'll see it."

"I know what to do," he told her and built a bridge, spinning it out under his hands, linking where the little Rat was hiding directly to where 37 was.

The Rat was moving.

It was a close call. The Master was collapsing Möbius loops around her heels.

"That's a hit; I don't know what is in that loop..." Still, the dot kept moving as the Möbius loop she was in began to collapse. "Come on, come on, come on," she breathed.

Koschei was dropping little bits of code behind the rat, leaving subroutines and command files littered behind her, to slow the Master's progress like they were caltrops.

The Rat made it to the bridge moments before it collapsed in her wake.

Koschei wrapped shields around the node, once she had made the leap, shifting it out of formation, throwing it aside, and replacing it with an empty one so swiftly, that it wasn't likely that the Master had noticed, and not a moment too soon. The three connecting nodes all collapsed simultaneously.

"Damn it all, drop the temperature of that node, quick, quick!" the Doctor shouted. "She's way too hot!" The temperature readings for the Rat were going off the scale.

"On it," Koschei replied. "I hope Masha has a parka."

"No, but she can freeze into a Popsicle and be fine when she thaws." The Rat's temperature was still very high, but already an extra two nodes had popped up in spare spots. "She had those up fast; it may be a record for her. She should drop off any minute." Adie was biting her lip at the still-soaring temperature readings.

Koschei was still working away, but Adie was surprised to see that he was actually subverting the subroutines, shifting them away from the Master's control, cutting him out of his own command structures, eating away at the codes, changing them to serve Koschei, but not the Master.

"It won't hold him forever. He's me, after all. He'll figure out what I've done, but it will slow him down for a while," Koschei told her through gritted teeth.

"He's going to double down when he comes back… there she goes." The Rat's dot had just vanished from the network.

"Wait... I think she saw what you were up to… I think she is trying to… override the isometric lockout?" She had little chance of successfully doing so, but it was a good attempt.

"Let's see if we can help her," he murmured and she could feel the rush of his mind, like the roar of an engine, as his thoughts became so focused that he forgot to shield her completely. Susan moved quickly, shifting Adie to a safer place and they both watched as he spun golden filaments of code out into the wind, ropes of thoughts and ideas for the little Rat to grab hold of.

He had a few seconds, and then the Black Ice hit. The Master was now actively aware of his presence. There would be no more spinning of code; now it was going to be a fight.

But even those few seconds had been enough for Rat to grab control of four of the Möbius Loops; and while the Master and Koschei were occupied with each other, she locked everyone out. Four Loops were now hers.

The Master's cursing about peeled the paint off of the walls. Never mind the Rat; he had an intruder, a genuine intruder, on the Project Net! What the hell had happened while he was gone? They were good, too; he had a real fight on his hands. But he wasn't afraid to fight. His opponent was staggering and he pressed his advantage.

Koschei felt the tide shifting under him as the Master took reckless, dangerous chances. It was a stunning attack, but it was also nearly suicidal. Was his other self so far gone that he didn't even care about his own life? He thought back to his days as Harold Saxon, the despair of believing that Susan was dead and gone, the manic insanity of his plans, the way he'd thrown himself into an orgy of destruction, trying to fill the void inside of himself, and he fought for some place of equilibrium in the tilting realm of their virtual battleground.

Then, an idea came to him. He shunted Adie out of the Gestalt, gently releasing her. He wasn't about to risk her like that.

Then, he opened the door he'd been trying so hard to keep closed.

/Stop this! / he called out to the Master. /She's alive! Susan is here and alive! Stop! /

Everything… stopped.

* * *

The Master sat, frozen at the controls, hands stilled, eyes wide, his hearts hammering in his chest, as that voice rolled through him. It was a voice he knew with intimate understanding, because it was himself.

He'd been at war with himself, a thought both painful and ludicrous, but that wasn't what had frozen him into immobility. It was the warm, sweet song twined around that voice. It was Susan. Susan's mind, her soul, her warm golden light, had shone through everything in this other him. In this timeline, she was alive, and this other self… was bonded to her.

His other self had the future he'd lost and the joy the other felt in it was the cause for the equal and opposite feeling in the Master. Susan was alive and he had tasted the ecstasy of that, only to have the door shut in his face.

The link shattered. He didn't break contact; it just collapsed from the unbearable weight of the revelation. He reached out almost automatically and shut down the portion of the network that he still controlled. His opponent would go no further, but neither would he.

It was over.

The Master didn't move for a long time after that.

* * *

Koschei cried out as the Master's pain and suffering whiplashed through him and he staggered away from the controls, falling to his knees, as the overwhelming despair and misery toppled him to the ground.

Susan burst into the room and he felt her arms around him, the soft scent of her filling his nostrils, as struggled to breathe and pull back far enough to disengage and separate himself from the downward spiral he was caught in.

"I'm here, love," Susan whispered to him and he clung to her voice, her mind, like a drowning man, until the pain eased and he was able to sit up again.

"Well," he choked out. "I got him to stop."

"Oh my love," Susan murmured, her voice filled with the echo of his own pain. They looked at each other, trying to recover from what they had felt from his other self.

"Are… are you all right?" Adie whispered, looking at him aghast.

"Oh yeah," he muttered and staggered to his feet, Susan supporting him. "I love having my psyche run through a shredder," he chuckled, as he wrapped his arms more tightly around Susan.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked, watching them both in concern.

"I asked the Master to stop... and he did." He glanced at Adie, suddenly wary of saying too much about this in front of her.

"Perhaps… I should bring some tea?' She sounded very uncertain.

"Oh yes, please," he told her. "Tannins would be really welcome right now." he staggered to a chair and sank into it, and Susan knelt down beside him, looking up at him with concern as Adie left the room.

"That's it? You just asked?" the Doctor muttered with an arched eyebrow.

"No... I told him Susan was alive," Koschei replied. The Doctor stared at him for a long time and then nodded.

"That was... generous of you," he finally said. "Stupid, but generous."

"No, it wasn't stupid," Susan disagreed. "He was in so much pain," she replied.

"Yes, I'm sure he was," the Doctor groused. "But now he'll be showing up here demanding to duel you at dawn!"

"No," Koschei shook his head. He knew himself too well. "He'd never do that, he felt the echo of our bond through the link, he knows what killing me would do to Susan." Koschei felt a twinge of guilt, as he wrapped an arm around his wife's waist.

"Oh..," the Doctor looked between the two of them and looked uncertain. "What will he do?"

"Something noble and stupid," Susan complained with frown and Koschei shrugged.

"What can I say, I'm a fool for love," he replied and she hugged him tight, her face creased with worry.

Darginian stepped into the room and crossed his arms, frowning fiercely.

"Koschei, would you happen to know why my servers are presently weeping into their beers right now?" he asked and the engineer winced.

"Because I was in a hacking war with the Master and forgot to lock them out of my system?" he answered and Dar rolled his eyes.

"Engineers!" Dar cried to the heavens.

"I'm a physicist," the Doctor pointed out helpfully. "Meanwhile, Koschei told the Master that Susan is alive."

Dar glared at Koschei and the slender blond just shrugged.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he murmured.

Adie came in then with the tea and they fell silent.

* * *

"I brought the tea," Adie said shyly, and set it down. The room was filled up suddenly and it was more people than she had talked to at once in a very long time. A mountain of a man was standing against the wall, watching her with a lazy smile, as well as the Doctor, sitting backwards on a chair, Koschei at the desk, with Susan kneeling beside him.

"Thank you," Susan told her with a smile, rising to her feet. "Captain Darginian, this is Adie, Adie, Captain Darginian," she introduced and Adie found her tiny hand engulfed in his large calloused one.

"Pleasure," he told her in a drawling voice that seemed designed to make the hearer instantly downgrade the speaker's intelligence.

"It is an honour and a privilege," she replied automatically, before blushingly remembering that wasn't the way things were done any longer. However, the Captain stood up straight and gave her a bow that wouldn't have been out of place in a dowager's drawing room and in flawless High Gallifreyan, he replied to her.

"Greetings of the day, most honoured Lady, may the rising suns bless your endeavours and the moons ease your path," he replied and when he lifted his head, his eyes were dancing.

She smiled a little at that.

"Would you care for some tea?"

"If you would be so gracious as to pour it, my Lady, I will reverence the cup you have handled," he told her, using the flowery terms of formal society with the merest touch of irony.

He was teasing her and she wasn't sure how to respond, so she settled for pouring tea and handing it around, then taking a cup for herself and sitting down on a nearby stool. Koschei did look as if he was feeling much better, and this helped to set her mind at ease: she had been worried about him.

Susan gave Dar an amused look and accepted the cup from Adie.

"You are the envy of the fashionable world, my Lord Captain," she teased him back and he smiled at her, flashing very white teeth in his tanned and weathered face.

"I think not, Princess," he chuckled and Susan stuck her tongue out at him.

"Dar! Stop calling me that!" she snapped and he grinned broadly, obviously enjoying her discomfiture.

"Right, so I think I have gotten our little Rat sorted, at least for now," Koschei murmured, "but I don't really know what the Master will do next."

"I do," Dar chuckled grimly. "He'll go after you, make sure you can't mess with his plans again," the large well-muscled shoulders shrugged. "Then he'll go do something crazy and dangerous."

"You have a way of making every gathering you attend brighter for your presence," Koschei muttered, using the hackneyed compliment sarcastically and Dar bowed with a grin.

"Do you think he'll come after Susan?" the Doctor asked and Dar shrugged.

"If he could figure out a way to dispatch Koschei without killing Susan, sure," he agreed. "He never could resist you." He grinned at Susan, who rolled her eyes.

Adie just listened, munching slowly on her scone, simply listening to the conversation, but her brows were furrowed, as she was thinking it over. She wasn't sure that Dar's analysis was correct, but she was hesitant to contradict him.

"Come on little Mouse," Dar asked, turning his hazel eyes on her with an amused look. "Tell us what your brain is nibbling on?"

"I don't… think that is right," she replied, horribly embarrassed by both the nickname and the amount of attention she was getting. "I think you're wrong."

"The Mouse disagrees!" he chuckled. "So, tell me your analysis, my hearts are aflutter to know!" he responded, grinning at her.

"I think he was involved in Susan's death, the other Susan, or, at least witnessed or… or something. I am fairly sure that he was there and he's obsessed with her. I could see him coming for her. But doing something that would hurt her?" She shook her head. "No."

"You have a good point, little Mouse," he conceded and leaned back in his chair, sticking out his legs, crossing his booted feet, and eyeing Koschei and Susan with an indulgent air. "He is disgustingly devoted to her and vice versa," he informed her in a low tone, as though he was imparting some great secret.

"Dar!" Koschei grumbled and sighed. "And that, Adie, is my other best mate. Between him and the Doctor, I have no peace and certainly not a shred of ego left." Susan sipped her tea demurely, ignoring them both, while the Doctor grinned.

"Well you had so much ego and for such a long time, that this makes a nice contrast," the Doctor teased him.

"Adie, how obsessed are we talking?" Susan asked her, her eyes probing, and Adie considered the question.

"He once mentioned in passing that the only thing he saw in colour was the Phial. No one is even allowed to mention your name in his presence. He never says a word but, you can see it, in his eyes that he thinks about you."

"Phial?" she asked softly. Koschei dropped his head down over his teacup, looking as though he was in pain.

"It's a very small glass bottle. It has a few strands of your hair in it, I think. I have only caught a glimpse of it once, but I don't believe he ever takes it off."

"A Lover's Lock," Dar sighed out, mimicking a tragic expression. "How terribly romantic, now what do we do about your insane obsessive stalker? The one who can blow up planets?" he asked with a sweetly reasonable tone and eyes like stones.

"Stop him from blowing up planets," Koschei murmured and Dar gave him a look that Adie could only interpret as pity. Susan winced and the Doctor glowered.

Looking between them all she realized that if they did have to kill the Master, it would make everyone else in the room deeply unhappy, it might even destroy Susan and Koschei.

Adie suddenly had a fervent wish to be a child in her father's house again, to go back to that long forgotten childhood and far away from the emotional turmoil around her.

Instead, she got up and poured more tea for everyone.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 – Plans to be Made

"Yes, we do need to keep the Master from harming the girls as well," the Doctor pointed out, sipping his tea thoughtfully. He leaned back in his chair and thought hard. There were so many different threads being woven that he was having problems tracking them all.

"We could run out the clock," Adie said, obviously just thinking out loud. "He's always been obsessive about a number of things, one of which was living, no matter what. I bet that obsession is getting really frayed right about now. If we leave it long enough, the problem might take care of itself." The Doctor winced as she said that, wondering again if his own failure to believe Koschei about the drums had contributed to all this.

"No." Susan's voice was soft, but firm. "As soon as Rose and Malla have figured out where he is, I am going to go and talk to him." The Doctor suppressed a grin at that thought. The Master was going to get quite a tongue-lashing from his short, ginger bond mate if he didn't behave himself.

"You don't know what he will do to you! You don't know what he may do to himself! Or to us, for that matter." On the last point, Adie sounded scared and the Doctor sighed. She had full reason to fear the Master, but she didn't understand the history there either.

"Yes, I do," Susan told her with a patient tone. "He's my anchor, just as much as Koschei is." A thought which made the Doctor mull over the things that Aristalandria had said to him in the Matrix. How much influence did the Arkytior have, how much of their lives was she controlling?

"Which still leaves the question of what happens to us in the meantime," Adie reminded them.

"He's not doing anything in the meantime," Koschei pointed out. "The whole system is frozen."

"Except for Rat's portion," added Adie.

"Yes, well she's proven rather good at sticking a finger in his eye," the Doctor reminded her.

"I have a great deal of faith in our little Rat," Koschei told him and Dar raised an eyebrow. With a broad grin, Koschei launched into the story of the Rat in the Möbius Loops, telling it with pride and gusto, obviously enjoying the girl's spunk and nerve.

* * *

It was only when she awakened hours later that Aislynn had the strength to open the box.

On top of the pile were the filters she had requested, with a box of cookies, and underneath was everything she'd asked for to fix the Elysium. Everything.

She breathed out a sigh of relief. For the moment, she was more interested in the filters than anything else. She checked to see how many were present, and what grades. The agent had put in not only grade 7 and 9 filters, but grade 11's, the finest made. Once the illness had progressed to the point where grade 11 filters would not stop it, it would truly be the end.

She went to her set-up, put the new filters in place, intending to start with grade 7 and re-filter with grade 9's. Pulling up the new Chant, she hummed it through a few more times, then raised her voice and began it.

In the apocalyptic and skeletal city, in the little stone igloo, to mark this august and momentous occasion, both Masha-37 and her visitor had agreed upon an extra ration each.

Masha-6 was considerably thinner than Masha 37, with sharp elbows and crisply defined cheekbones. They had each spent the night spinning their own tales while the other listened intently. Now they were scattering pieces of blank paper over the large, flat stone that served as a table.

"We don't want to put these in our tablets?"

"No. If we can hack him, he can hack us. It is amazing you have paper, surely your tablet must have art programs?"

"It does, but I like the feel of the paper better. So… what is the plan?"

Masha-6 drew the papers closer and began writing on them, scribbling illustrations that were functional, but not nearly as well executed as Masha-37's.

"The addition of Koschei explains why I was able to reroute the isometric controls," she said. "He must have distracted the Master. That allowed me to implement the cascade, and the cascade was partially successful."

"So, what did we get out of it?"

"Four of the Möbius Loops are now under our direct control. Koschei and the Master are both locked out."

"Can we contact them?"

"Unfortunately, no," Masha-6 said. "We can't contact anyone outside the Möbius Loops. The only reason we got as close as we did was because of the reset, and you'd better hope we won't be having one of those again."

"So what do we do?"

"First and foremost: we gather. We join forces. We're scattered, one Masha per loop, that's no good. We invade other loops, pull the Mashas out, use combined forces to press our advantage. That will allow us to explore properly, pull loops under our control. Sooner or later there ought to be some point where communication with the outside world is possible. The Time Lords had to have had a way to communicate with the Master. Once we find that, we contact Gallifrey, your Gallifrey, and see about getting the hell out of here."

"Okay!" 37 agreed, and they toasted each other with the converter, 37 solemnly taking a sip from its straw, and then passing it to 6, who took an equally solemn sip.

"One more thing," 6 added, after her sip. "We are not referring to ourselves as numbers anymore. We are individual people and we will each have our own, individual names."

"You said we needed the numbers for the network?"

"And so we do. We will keep our numbers. But they are not our names."

They spent the evening playing with the random name generator on Masha-37's tablet: 6 selected the name of Tomoko-6 for herself; while 37 chose Diana-37

"That was Wonder Woman's real name," she explained and Tomoko-6 nodded. "To having our own names." She took a sip from the straw.

"To having our own names," agreed Tomoko-6, and took a sip also.

Then they started to plan in earnest.

* * *

The Doctor settled into a chair and watched his wife working. The energy flowed back and forth between Malla and Rose and he found it all rather soothing. She jotted down notes as she worked through the equations, face set in a frown of concentration, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her hair was blonde, at the moment, though she changed it fairly regularly. She'd let the natural brown grow out for a while, or she'd dye it other colours for a while.

He liked the blonde best though. He had never forgotten the way she looked the first time he'd seen her. The dim basement and that shock of bleached hair over the loveliest brown eyes he'd ever seen. The blonde had a special place in his hearts.

"This is bloody hard," Rose muttered and he smiled at her.

"What's the problem?" he asked and she looked up, sighing.

"Finding a Temporal Grace Point in this muckin' huge galaxy is not a simple problem," she explained.

"Well, Masha was found not too terribly far from where she escaped the Loop, so we could probably narrow down the search a bit," he suggested and she nodded.

"Oh good, that narrows it down to only twenty-five thousand light years worth to search through, instead of one hundred thousand," she snarked and the Doctor smiled fondly at her.

"I have complete faith in you," he assured her and she grinned back at him.

"Yeah, I'm pretty impressive." He laughed and kissed her.

"You are brilliant," he murmured and she put the tablet aside with a smile.

* * *

Aislynn was feeling much better. She had used four of the filters and had pulled an alarming quantity of pewter goo out of her bloodstream. She knew that her blood was still choking with the stuff, filters or not: but still the difference was amazing. She had spent several enjoyable hours working on the Elysium, and now was feeling so well that she was actually out in public. She very rarely went outside, and then only when she was strong enough to bear the necessary Chant: today was one of those extremely rare days.

It wasn't until she was at the end of the block that she saw the dark-coated figure, glaring at her; and turning back she saw that another one was between her and the stairs.

She thinned her lips. She took a run for it, vaulting a fence into an alleyway and marvelling at the difference the filters made; there was no way she would have made such a leap a few days ago.

She wasn't surprised to see seven figures in dark suits appearing on the other side of the wall without necessarily seeming to jump over it.

"Gentlemen," she said dryly to them, her eyes casting around, assessing her situation.

They just stared at her, moving no closer, and no further away. For a moment they just stood and stared at each other. Then they parted, to reveal another coated figure: a female.

"You've taken some things that belong to us," she said, without so much as greeting.

"That belong to whom, exactly?" Aislynn asked her, angling for some information to give to Captain Darginian.

"That is none of your concern. We insist upon the return of our devices." Well, she thought, so much for that.

"And if I say no?"

"If you do not return our devices, we will kill you," she threatened and Aislynn's trained singer's ear detected the slight accent to her voice. Not a human accent, she was sure, though she couldn't quite place it.

"You are welcome to try."

The woman gestured and the others charged forwards.

One of the dark clad figured lunged at her and she felt a serrated edge cutting her bicep, a foot in front of the man. She frowned, realizing that these were not their true forms; they were wearing perception filters or something similar. She rolled out of the way of his next lunge, trying to gauge the length of a weapon she couldn't even see.

A knife thunked into the back of her nearest assailant and he screamed in a high-pitched inhuman tone. A figure blurred into the corner of Aislynn's eye, kicking out, and snapping the wrist of another. He turned towards her and she saw that it was Taydin.

She rolled hard, holding the Tuning Sonic in her hand. Its flash was blinding. Her attacker hadn't expected it, and her foot came up, flipping him over.

Something flashed towards her and she caught it reflexively, it was a snub-nosed stunner pistol. She spun and fired in a single fluid motion taking down two more with brisk efficiency. She took a moment to make absolutely certain that one of those two was the one that cut her arm.

Turning to look for her next opponent, she found the area filled with silent, still forms and saw Taydin kneeling over one, checking his condition. The woman was not among the fallen however; she'd vanished.

* * *

The Dust Loop quickly became the basis for operations, for the worst thing here was dust, and the nearby loops were clearly not suitable. By all external appearances, the world of the Mashas was dreadful, in the broken, burning city, no food, no water.

Yet somehow the dread silence of that awful place didn't extend to the inside of the little stone igloo. The inhabitants of the four loops under Tomoko-6's control had been pulled back here. For the first time they had each other; and as their numbers grew, so too did their merriment. The igloo had become so blown-over that it was entirely encased in a dune, except for the entrance; and this served to insulate it. The wind howled outside, but inside they were cosy and comfortable.

Tomoko-6 spent weeks trying to send a return message out once she found out about the care packages, but with no luck.

Nevertheless, every care package was like Christmas. They had letters from Wilf and Donna, and Wilf had included a picture of her hut on Gallifrey, where her flowers were blooming. Cassie had included practical supplies. but had also included make-up.

None of them had ever used make-up before and it was an instant hit, as they did each other's faces and laughed until they cried, and then discovered that the mascara ran, which made them laugh even harder.

Mike had included, under a false bottom no less, a porn magazine featuring handsome naked men in various poses. The centrefold was not Jake, but the model had hair of a similar shade and cut, so that Diana-37 was immediately reminded of him, and they howled and giggled over it.

* * *

Panting, Aislynn collapsed onto a nearby stack of boards, sitting on them clumsily, trying to catch her breath. She had clearly overestimated the amount of good that the filters had done.

She looked at Taydin for a long time, appreciating the freedom of will that he was permitting her to have. Taydin looked around and gave her an interrogative look. It was several minutes before she had caught her breath enough to reply, and got to her slightly-unsteady feet.

She approached the one who had cut her earlier; it was dead. Even in its false human form, the skin was turning gray.

Taydin drew out a pulse gun and raised an eyebrow at her. The gun would vaporize the body completely and she nodded and backed off, understanding.

"Yes, this one, and everything within three yards." He simply pointed the weapon and fired, incinerating the body and then carefully and methodically, sterilizing the area around it.

She knelt, checking some of the other forms, but saw no further evidence of contamination. She did, however, find a symbol, which she drew out of the pocket, and frowned. Several of the others bore the same item. It was a circle, with fanged teeth in a half moon at the centre.

"Thank you," she told Taydin, getting to her feet, and he just shrugged, face as calm as it had been since the first and gave her a small, formal bow, which she returned.

"I am in your debt," she told him in formal Gallifreyan, but he shook his head. He looked up at the angle of the sun in the sky. Night was falling. He gestured her out of the alley, following along beside her at a bit of a distance.

"I expect that you are in contact with the Agent?" She looked at him expectantly and he nodded.

She paused, kneeling for a moment, placing one of the symbols on the ground with a gloved hand, then backing away so that he could pick it up.

"I imagine he will be most interested in that." Taydin looked at her and his lips twisted in what might charitably be called a smile. He pocketed the symbol and hesitated a moment before frowning and she inclined her head at him.

"They will certainly be back," she said, "But I believe we have a few days grace."

He nodded and flicked a card at her. It was a Scout's Summons, a way of contacting a Scout in an emergency, a sort of panic button. They were rarely seen and even more rarely given.

"I am honoured," she said, putting it carefully away and he bowed and disappeared down the alley.

Aislynn turned and headed home. The fight had taken a lot out of her. In the mailbox of her flat, there was a package with more filters in it.

She smiled, wondering when he had had time to slip this into her mailbox. The feeling that someone was watching over her was strangely comforting. She fingered the Summons card and smiled as she went upstairs.

* * *

The Master sat in his chair, staring at nothing. There had to be a limit to how much pain a person could feel, he thought. Yet, somehow, the pain of his existence just seemed to grow worse as time went on. He idly considered going to find her, killing his other self with his bare hands and taking her. However, the fantasy of killing the other him always made him think of the way the light had sparked and then died in her eyes and he was back to staring at the wall again.

She was already bonded to his other self. She was not bonded to him. There was no possible fix. No matter how he did it, killing his other self would harm Susan. She would hate him forever. He had found her again, impossibly, miraculously, only to discover that, in an entirely new way, he was too late. Again.

A soft beep interrupted him, and he went to see what the commotion was. It was an automatic gesture, no real concern or thought behind it, just something to do, until he saw the data scrolling across the screen.

"The Manifold are active at Node Point Seven," it told him. "Breach imminent."

The jolt of fear brought him out of his stupor, leaning forwards, his jaw dropping open. He had forgotten about them, forgotten that they had been housed in their own Möbius Loop with all of the rest of the horrors forgotten here. A hydrogen bomb innocently lurking in a batch of otherwise-harmless grenades.

This changed everything.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 - The Manifold

"Damn the Rani!" the Master snarled. "How many times did I tell her about the necessity of growth limitations? Of the dangers of absolute fractals? Of the requirement for a merge limitation threshold? How many times? She never listened to a word I said! It was in one ear, and out the other and now I have this rubbish to deal with!"

He ran scans. The size of the main mass was so staggering that it drove all other thoughts out of his head, even thoughts of Susan. For several long minutes he just stared at it in a kind of horrified awe. Finally, he remembered to check the mass spectrometer, but without much hope, and the readings confirmed his suspicions. They had spent the hundred years he'd been sleeping working on a way out. They had been at the maximum allowances of his equipment when he had trapped them in the first place; now they had grown past the capacity of the TARDIS to lock down. When he looked at the Möbius loops next to them, he groaned; they had already invaded two of them.

He was extremely lucky that these loops remained in the area under his direct control. Praying that his counterpart was occupied, and trying not to think about the activities which might be distracting him, he reactivated the network long enough to break off the grouping, then locked it down again. If he had gotten to the grouping in time, that would at least halt the spread of the Manifold through the other Loops.

But what to do about the Möbius Grouping? The weapons on the TARDIS weren't enough, even the command centre wasn't heavily armed enough, and he didn't have anything that had any hope of...

No, he had the Lens.

* * *

After Taydin's visit, Aislynn began checking her mailbox every day. She soon discovered that the filters came with clockwork regularity, despite the fact that she never caught sight of him making the deliveries.

She had been out for most of the day, unable to resist the special display of orchids at the Chelsea Physic Garden, and was pleased to discover more filters in her mailbox when she returned home.

She had had such a pleasant day, and her mind was so filled with thoughts of orchids, that she didn't notice anything out of place, until she opened her front door and heard an ominous click.

Time itself seemed to slow down in the ten foot gap between the front door and the beaded curtain. At her heels was a wave of fire and hot air. Despite her speed, it caught her, picked her up, and smacked her into something hard, and she knew nothing else.

The curtain of hanging beads, through which she had hurled herself, parted the fireball like the red sea as her TARDIS' defences raced to save her.

The explosion took the top right off the building. Every window within a three-block radius shattered, as an enormous fireball rose into the sky. The apartment building trembled violently and then it collapsed, falling down in a pile of rubble, bricks, and flames.

* * *

The Master sat back and thought. There was no question that the Lens could take out the Möbius Grouping. Without the Locus, whom he doubted he would see again, he would have to revert to the old probability-bubble configuration, and fire it at point-blank range. If the Manifold didn't end him, the blast radius certainly would.

Perhaps that would be the best outcome possible, given the circumstances.

He envied his other self, it was a burning acid in his gut, but more than that, he hated himself for failing her so spectacularly. The bitter truth was that this alternate self deserved her, far more than he did. The other one hadn't destroyed their future. Susan would be safe and happy with the other him, and although that knowledge had burned his hearts clean out of his body, there was a part of him that wanted nothing more than her happiness. He very definitely did not want her to have to experience the horrors of the Manifold.

He fingered the Phial idly as he considered the situation, and then looked down at it.

It had lost its colour.

* * *

Aislynn opened her eyes to dazzling white, but also to smoke. Somewhere nearby there were flames. Everything was muffled, distorted, and her eyes refused to focus properly.

There was blood. Was it her blood? It didn't seem to be bad, but she had a horror of her blood ever being spilled. Even though the quantity wasn't great, its mere presence alarmed her deeply.

A single thought forced its way into her dazed brain: there was a place she had to find. She couldn't remember where it was, but she knew that if she could find the door, there was a bed there, and she could lay down until she felt better. It was a safe place.

She couldn't find it. She tried to follow the sunshine, pulling herself through a narrow space, and leaving the dazzling whiteness behind her. There were bricks here, smoke and dust, flames and parts of boards, and her blood was dripping all over in round fat drops and she couldn't find the door. Where was the door? Everything would be all right, if only she could find the door, find it and lay down in the cool dark beds beyond and sleep until her head stopped hurting so horribly.

Someone's voice in her ear and a face in her vision. Dark hair and eyes, a frowning mouth, not a face she knew. He was speaking, but she was having trouble hearing anything.

A human! Was he mad? He was so close, and she was bleeding. She scrambled violently backwards, overbalancing and landing on her rear, but continuing to back off. Idiot!

"You're in shock, but you'll be okay!" her hearing came back in a rush and the sounds were overwhelming. Sirens, shouting, screams, the sobs of the wounded and the desperate cries of the survivors, searching for their loved ones.

"No, get back," her mouth seemed full of cotton and her hearts stopped for a moment when she realized there was blood on her hands. Whose blood? "I'm infected… get back… stay back… very infectious… we need to burn this… burn… I'll be fine… just need to find my door… where is my door? Stay back!"

She felt a sharp jab in her arm and then was suddenly woozy.

"It's okay, lady, I'll take care of you, you're going to be just fine," the voice followed her into darkness, even as she begged him not to touch her.

* * *

The colourless phial was a new blow, but at the same time, he understood it. Susan was no longer for him. That future had collapsed and blown away to dust. All he had left was this one last thing that he could do for her.

Returning the glass bottle to its velvet-lined box was the single most painful thing he had ever experienced in his life; but it had to be done. He set it inside her box of things on the top shelf of the wardrobe, and secured it carefully. He already knew that he would never look at them again.

He had no allies and without them his chances were abysmal. He was going to die and finally put an end to his misery; but he would take the Manifold down with him. Susan would be safe; as they were not bonded, she wouldn't feel his death as she would have felt the death of his luckier alternate self. Perhaps that, too, was for the best. He could slip away out of her life without causing her any more pain.

* * *

"Right." He returned, not to his command chair, but to the flight console. "Time to put this damn thing together."

And thanks to the brief contact from the mind of his alternate self, he knew right where to start.

Doctor Owen Harper looked up as they wheeled the woman into the ER.

"She said something about being infected," the paramedic told him. "She was raving, but we put on gloves anyway," he continued and Owen nodded.

"Right, thanks," he replied and double-gloved his hands, just in case. Last thing he needed was to pick up Hep-C, or Aids, or something from some junkie girl. Though, as he turned her face to the light, he decided that her thin wasted condition wasn't from drugs. No track marks, no burns inside her nose. No, she probably was really sick with something. He frowned and picked up her hand.

She had gotten a manicure recently, very nicely done, but the explosion had knocked off one of the false nails. Her nail beds were metallic silver. Underneath the nail.

* * *

Setting up a Timestop inside a Möbius Loop was mighty tricky business, but the Master no longer cared about the risks or the consequences. He had a real problem to stop; and he would do whatever was required. His TARDIS had been specially modified so he could move freely anywhere along the chain of Möbius loops: the Command Centre served the function of the second TARDIS, holding open points as he needed them. Getting out of the chain altogether, of course, would be an entirely different matter: but he didn't need to be out of the chain at this point.

That damned Rat now controlled four Nodes, and he wasn't having it. Couldn't have it. If the Manifold ever broke out of the Möbius Grouping, it would be the end of this stellar cluster, and no telling where it would go after that.

He set up a timestop the moment he materialized into the first loop, and double-checked to make certain it had taken effect. Then and only then, when nothing moved, did he review the contents of each Node, not using the network at all, but using the scanners and sensors of his TARDIS, which was entirely independent. The inefficiency of being forced into a manual search chafed him: but he was through playing games.

Sure enough, there they were: four of them, together, in the same loop, frozen in time. Ploughing their way through the Kraten that infested this area, they were undoubtedly trying to get to the fifth clone, also caught in the Timestop, but much further away.

It was not possible to stop time forever. The power requirements were ludicrous. But then, he didn't need to. In five minutes he had bubbled the lot of them in stasis, and transported them to the lab, leaving the Rat's Möbius Loops empty of occupants.

But there were only five clones, there should have been six. Where was the sixth? He had the Rat, he was sure of it this time. He would have to deal with her quickly. He allowed himself a certain grim satisfaction at having caught her at last, and then he went to work again.

* * *

"George! I need a quarantine ward set up right now!" Owen shouted and the room dissolved into organized chaos around him. He squeezed his eyes tightly together for a brief moment, wondering if he'd ever see his wife again, and then he was off and running, getting his patient into a quarantined room, plastic walls all around them and then staying with her.

After all, he'd already been exposed. Might as well keep working on her.

"Owen," the voice on the intercom called out. "We can send in a nurse."

"No bloody way! If this is Ebola or something, I'm not putting anyone else at risk! Did you get to the paramedics?"

"Yeah. Uh... Owen," Daniel hesitated. "They were already dead..."

"Shit!" Owen grumbled and then went back to taking care of the Jane Doe.

The woman's injuries weren't too bad, considering where they had found her. The concussion was the most serious, but the shrapnel, mostly in her shoulder and arm, proved to be superficial, though a few stitches were needed here and there. Owen was very careful as he worked, as much to keep from puncturing himself as to help her.

* * *

A bomb?" Dar asked in icy cold clipped tones.

Cassie slouched in her seat, watching him with wary eyes.

"So, how bad is it?" she asked him and saw a sight she had never seen before and really never wanted to see again. Dar was angry. She supposed that he got angry plenty of times, but he never showed it. He never showed anything but that genial outer shell. To see his eyes blazing and his brows drawn down over the hard line of his mouth was distinctly alarming.

"How bad?" he snarled at her. "Does the word "Clusterfuck" mean anything to you? She's Infected! Everyone who so much as touches her could die! I told you lot to keep her under surveillance and to allow no contact! How the hell did they get a bomb into her apartment without you lot knowing it? Hell, we embedded an agent right next door to her!" He rose to his full height, standing over her, face livid and eyes flashing. His voice never rose to a shout, but she still felt like there was a weight on her, like his anger was actually palpable. "Wait here!" he snapped at her and stormed out.

She sat there, perfectly still, like a mouse that knows the cat could be back at any moment.

When Dar returned, he was accompanied by another Time Lord, this one had gold flecked blue eyes and an expressionless face that gave away nothing. He was carrying a suitcase and had a large pack on his back.

"This is Taydin, he's coming along." Dar announced, grabbed his coat, and then stomped out of the room, Taydin at his heels. Cassie scrambled out of her chair and ran after him.

"Bloody Mike, this is why he let me tell Dar," she fumed as they practically ran to the Trans Mat.

* * *

The Master decided that there was no need for his alternate self to know what he was doing. The Rat had set up false network points: two could play at that game. It wouldn't stop the lucky wanker forever, he was bound to figure it out sooner or later; but the game would have changed drastically by the time he had done so. In fact, by that time, it might even be over. His prizes obtained, he returned to the command centre, parked the TARDIS, and headed to the lab. Now to see to the clones, and most especially to that damnable Rat. The stakes were now too high to tolerate any further interference.

As much as the Master desperately desired to kill the Rat, he simply didn't have time to run off a replacement for her. He had a feeling like he ought not to either, though he couldn't have said why.

He did have time, however, for an intellect dump and wash of the cerebral tunnelling engine. He absolutely could not tolerate any further resistance, particularly from her. The process was quick and painless, but he felt an odd twinge of guilt from the blank, empty look in her eyes as he manoeuvred the husk into its container, strapped it in, closed the lid, and put it into line with the others.

The probability bubble set-up had technically been abandoned early in the design phases, when it became clear that a single clone could be embedded in a population to burn it down. However, the older, clunkier set-up also boosted its damage output by a significant margin, and damage output was all that mattered here.

He had stored the intellect dump on a series of external data crystals; now he threw the crystals into a shielded box, and tossed the box in a nearby locker. If he was lucky enough to miraculously survive this, he wanted to study what she had done. The locker was full of identical shielded boxes, most of them containing data crystals. Sooner or later, he reminded himself for the thousandth time, he was going to have to get around to cleaning out that locker and cataloguing all those data crystals.

He didn't even remember what was on half of them. He had no idea how he had even gotten into the habit of dumping unwanted data into this locker.

With the Rat under wraps at last, he returned to the flight controls and began hopping along all of the Möbius loops along his section of the chain. It was very lucky that none of the clones had ended up in the Möbius Grouping, with the Manifold; he didn't expect anything further from Lady Luck. Either he could get the Lens assembled in time, or he couldn't.

* * *

Aislynn came to herself slowly. Her head was pounding and there was something in her nose. Something plastic. Something about it alarmed her. Her head was full of sirens and smoke and flames.

When she opened her eyes, everything was pale green. A human hospital. She groaned, raising her hand to her sore head and discovering gauze there.

"Try not to move, I worked hard to bandage you up," a dry voice informed her.

"Infected… stay well back…" she muttered.

"Yeah, I figured that out. You're in quarantine, with me, since I figured it out just a bit too late for myself," he sighed.

"How many died?"

"Two, the paramedics," he told her, his voice gentle. "Not your fault, you warned them. They did their jobs." She stared at him in horror and grief. "My name's Owen and you are...?" he asked and his voice was sort of bitterly amused, as though he was used to things going wrong.

"Aislynn," she told him.

He had dark hair and eyes, fair skin, a mouth stretched wide in a wry grimace, smile lines around his eyes, a human male in doctor's attire, and a stethoscope around his neck.

"Pleased to meet you, Aislynn," he replied. "So, your nails are silver."

She nodded, swallowing. Her voice was hoarse. "Next will be the gums, then… tear ducts, I believe."

"So, any cure?" he asked and the courage it must have taken for him to maintain that pleasant disinterested tone made her hearts contract in pain.

She shook her head.

"But… you may not be infected… it's not airborne… it needs liquid transmission. Preferably blood-to-blood."

"Well, then I may be in luck," he murmured. "I didn't give you any drugs, by the way. Once I heard your hearts, I figured it would be dangerous to give you anything."

"Thank you," she murmured. "What happened?"

"There was a bomb. Your building was destroyed. It's rubble right now. I'm sorry," he told her, looking at her with sympathy. She closed her eyes, trying to shield herself from the blow.

"How many dead?"

"They're still sifting through the rubble," he temporized.

"It's my fault, I should have moved, should have moved right away. Damned fool to stay where I was," she said hoarsely.

"Because you knew that your next door neighbour was a Torchwood Agent and that the terrorists were going to bomb the place to get him?" he asked, giving her an amused look.

"The… skinny college kid… was a Torchwood agent?"

"Seems so, the note from the terrorists, and yeah, they left a note this time, said that they were after him and Torchwood confirms he was one of theirs," he sighed. "Insane though, to blow up a building to kill one guy. Just sick."

"...huh." Aislynn doubted that the note was real, which meant Darginian was already involved somewhere.

"Torchwood should be showing up here soon, Aislynn. I'm sorry, but the hospital called them. Still, you'll have company on the ride. As I might be infected, they want me too," he chuckled. "So, you won't be lonely." He patted her shoulder, his rubber gloved hand nearly silent on the fabric of her hospital gown.

"They will be able to tell right away if you are infected," she said, "And you would be in the very earliest stages. It may be able to be reversed in you with careful blood filtering."

He nodded and a thin trickle of blood started from his nose. He looked down at the drip, snatching up some gauze and cleaning himself.

"Would this be a symptom?" he asked in hushed tone and her eyes brimmed with tears.

"One of the first."

"Well then, I guess we'll keep each other company for a while. I don't suppose you want to play cards or something," he murmured, his eyes sad, but his mouth turned determinedly up.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15 - Best Laid Plans

Diana-37's tablet beeped at her. She grabbed it off of the wrecked table where it was sitting, and shook it violently.

"Damn you!" she howled at it. "We were not going with the backup plan! We had this big discussion about how we were not going with the backup plan! We were going to beat that bloody bastard! Vive la revolution! Remember? Remember?"

She threw the tablet violently against the wall, and sobbed.

After a few minutes, she calmed down a bit, and wiped her eyes. She was surprised at herself; she wasn't prone to bursting into fits of tears.

"It's all right," she told the tablet, going over to where it had fallen, and picking it up. "We all knew we might have to go with the backup plan. It's not your fault."

She used a bit of precious water to dampen a not-too-dusty cloth, and used it to wipe down her face, smearing the dust on it all over, but erasing the tear tracks.

"There. That's better."

She opened the tablet and turned it on. As hard as she had thrown it, there was no damage to it at all; Koschei's modifications had seen to that. After a moment, its screen cleared. It showed a computer-animated version of a face: Tomoko's face she guessed,as it had her spiky haircut.

"Tomoko Construct, online," said the face. "Please scan your number for identification." Masha placed her hand on the screen, and a green line ran across it, bottom to top.

"Okay," she muttered.

"Status," said the face, "Number: 37. Bioscan; health optimal. Access granted." The face smiled. "Hi, Di!"

"Tomoko programmed you with the 'Hi, Di,' thing? Very funny," she growled. "What happened?"

"The Dead Man's timer has expired," said Tomoko Construct. "Tomoko is considered to be dead or captured. If she was accompanied by the group, and the group has not returned, the members are also considered to be dead or captured. In the event of capture, an intelligence dump and quantum tunneling wipe is a virtual certainty," reported Tomoko Construct.

"However, this tablet has been significantly upgraded from its original specifications. It contained enough storage and processing power to allow the creation of a backup framework. If Tomoko has not been killed, and the body can be recovered, this tablet may be used to restore partial functionality. She will lose a lot, but the data will be sufficient to reconstruct the basic personality and a simplistic memory basis. Is Tomoko alive? Can she be recovered?"

"I don't know. I don't even know what happened."

"Plan A has been placed on pause indefinitely. We will proceed with Plan B."

"Fine, fine," grumbled Diana-37. "Raid the next loop and free the next person. Then we both raid the next loop, free the next person, try to gather a formidable force without discovery until we can contact the Time Lords, yadda, yadda, yadda. Do we have any clues on possible communication?"

"We are out of communication at the current time."

"Hunk of junk," grumbled Diana-37, and closed the notebook.

She checked the time that the next bridge would open; and hastily grabbed her outer clothes. There was surely another package from Jake by this time; but she would have to pick it up later. She was going to have to book to make the bridge, or she was going to miss it.

* * *

Jake pushed into the room, looking around in some agitation and spotted Koschei and Adie working, Freeya off to one side, doing her homework.

"Hey, Adie," he called. "You busy?"

She put down her tablet and came over at the look on his face.

"What is it?"

"I tried to drop a post to Masha and it said 'no room at point of delivery', is that bad?" he asked.

Adie took the box in her hands with a frown, checked the package inside of it, tried the transmit, and got the same message.

"How long has it been saying this?"

"About three hours," he told her.

She was looking concerned.

"And when was the last package you sent? I mean, not this one, but the package before?"

"Yesterday, same time. Well… yesterday about three hours earlier than now."

Her expression of concern was deepening.

"You can't transmit a new package because the previous package hasn't been picked up yet. Time doesn't run at the same rate inside the loops as it does outside. Twenty-seven hours works out to…. about seven weeks." She scowled at the mail drop, though she knew it wasn't its fault.

"Is she all right? Why didn't she come get it?" he asked, with a rising sense of panic.

"I…" She looked back over her shoulder, at the screen that showed the network grid, and slowly shook her head. "I… don't know. I can't even tell if she is on the grid at the moment. Not with the false network points. Koschei?"

"Let me run a test pattern, see what I can find out," he suggested, looking worried and unhappy.

Adie closed her eyes.

"Can you just… wiggle your fingers at the monitor or something? So that it doesn't come out 'inconclusive' like the last four test patterns we ran?" Koschei winced, his eyes darkening with pain.

"I'll try a variable on the wavelengths," he whispered hoarsely.

"Koschei, I'm… sorry. That was petty of me to say. I'm just frustrated." He nodded, but kept his head down over the machine, working for a while before he finally spoke.

"No, I deserve it," he replied very softly. "This is all my fault."

"No," Adie said with some heat. "None of this is your fault." He looked at her and she could tell that be didn't believe her at all. He studied her and sighed.

"Even if it isn't my fault, it's still my responsibility," he told her.

"You have chosen to take responsibility, but, you could have turned around and walked away, and no one, including me, would have said a word about it." Adie's eyes were fiery, not with anger, but with intensity. She meant what she was saying.

"I appreciate that, Adie, I do, but you're wrong about one thing. There are plenty of people who would have a great deal to say if I didn't try to fix this, one of them being Jake there," he pointed out and Jake nodded.

"No offence, Koschei, but get her back, or I'll find a way to end all of your lives," he commented with a wry smile and Koschei nodded back at him, as though that was a perfectly reasonable statement.

"You do know I have already used our spanner allotment for the year, right?"

"D-mat gun, when you absolutely, positively, have to murder yourself a Time Lord," Jake explained with a grim smile and Adie winced.

"Now, let's see if we can track down Masha 37," Koschei sighed.

Adie nodded.

"Why don't I get some tea while we are waiting?" She hoped she didn't sound as nervous as she felt.

* * *

Aislynn heard the commotion outside her room and Owen looked up.

"I think our ride is here," he murmured.

"Yes," she said, and put on a brave face for him, but it was clear that she was scared. "I wonder if it is Torchwood."

"Don't worry, I hear they save the thumbscrews for only hardened cases," he told her with a smile. "But, seriously, Pete Tyler's a good guy. Since he took over the place their reputation has changed a lot. They no longer just shoot aliens on sight, now they have a way to send you to some space police guys for transport home or something." He shrugged. "So, no problems, right?"

Her face drained of colour. "The Shadow Proclamation? No!" She dropped the cards. "I can never go home, not ever, they can't know I am here!"

"Because you're an escaped felon? What? You were arrested for tickling kittens?" he asked with an arched eyebrow. She pointed at him as if this was an idea.

"That's good, they won't know anything differently, they'll send me to a penal colony, Arkanan or somewhere, that might work... "Aislynn was terrified out of her wits.

He stared at her.

"Is one of the symptoms delusions or insanity, because you're not making any sense," he informed her.

"I am Infected," she said. "I can never go home. They must never know I am here. Not ever!"

"Right, because they would give you flowers and send cards and you hate sentimentality!" he retorted with an eye roll.

"Because it could wipe out what is left of my race," she said and her voice was rough.

"Because advanced aliens from beyond space and time would totally not think to quarantine you, the way that we primitive monkey boys did, and they would totally forget to not let you bleed on them, because they're suicidal?" he snarked at her.

Her eyes brimmed, but her face was hard and her lips were in a thin line.

"Because there are maybe thirty of us left. Losing two paramedics would be losing maybe eight to ten percent of our total population. I am told we have a doctor. One doctor. They may be our only doctor."

"I stand by my earlier statement. Just because I was stupid, doesn't mean that they will be and they have more advanced tech than I do. You cannot tell me that they won't know what's wrong with you," he sighed. "They must have protocols for this."

There was a knock on the window. A figure in a full hazmat suit held a sign up written in circular Gallifreyan.

"17 Hells of Asterix, Aislynn, this is a clusterfuck of epic proportions and I am going to have to wrench off balls to fix this. Glad you're alive though." Obviously the figure must be the Agent, Captain Darginian, as she could not imagine Scout Commander Taydin using such language.

She looked at Owen.

"Do we have a… marker or something? A piece of paper?"

He grabbed his clipboard and pulled a page from the bottom, then handed her his pen.

"Thank you," she told him and then wrote out; "This human doctor has been infected.

"If I send in the machine can you use it? The doctor can assist. You can help him, after you do yourself." The symbol he used for 'after' was one that contained extreme forcefulness and was nearly a command term.

"My filtering machine is to be sent in. I'll go first and show you how it is used. Then you can go next."

"Sure thing," he replied, his eyes on her dark and unreadable. "You okay?"

There was too much to possibly explain to him.

"Yes," she said simply, without realizing that at the same time, she was shaking her head, 'No."

"Okay," he told her in a curiously gentle tone. "I'll get the machine for us, eh?" he murmured, rose, and went to stand near to, but not too close to, the airlock they'd set up at one end of the plastic tent that floated above them, his eyes watched her though with that same gentleness the whole time.

* * *

"Dammit!" Diana-37 spat as the point of light fizzled and died right in front of them, not fifteen feet ahead. They were standing in the gray and misty light of Kimberley-21's Loop and Diana wasn't feeling as though her very first solo rescue mission was going very well.

"Don't tell me we missed it," panted Kimberley-21. Her hair was in two long chocolate braids, her eyes the same acid yellow as Diana's, but unlike the Torchwood issue black fatigues that Diana wore, she was dressed in bright cheery yellows.

"We missed it." Masha-37 burst into a stream of cursing that about blistered the paint off the walls of the tumble down warehouses. "I hate this place!" She growled and looked around her in disgust.

A surly, dark river prowled through the town, splitting it in two before it presumably ran into the far distant ocean, but the Loop contained only the town, with its glowering university, gambrel roofs, and the twisted creatures that infested it.

"Don't panic," Kimberly-21 told her soothingly, flipping her braids back and squinting out at the heavy mist that never seemed to clear. "As long as we're careful, it's not that bad. The University has a great library."

"I'm not panicking, I'm pissed!" Diana shot back. Those tentacled horrors had been tougher than she'd expected and fighting them had delayed them just a bit too much. She frowned at the empty shops and broken windows as they walked up the street from the river and back towards the University, where Kimberly had lived hundreds of years, with nothing but books to keep her company.

"These things come in cycles, right? It's just like missing a train, all we have to do is wait for the next one," she commented, her eyes bright with excitement, nearly giddy just to not be alone anymore.

"This is not exactly where I want to wait," Diana-37 pointed out, gesturing at the tumbledown University as they walked in.

"We don't exactly have a choice. When is the next bridge?" Kimberly-21 asked as they pushed into the Librarian's office, where she had made her home. Grumbling, Diana-37 pulled out her tablet, pushing Dr. Armitage's blotter and name plate out of the way, so she could set it down on the big oak desk.

"Three months," she sighed.

"Oh, that's a bit longer than I was hoping," Kimberly-21 sighed and then shot at a tentacle that twitched around the doorway, before she shut it and sealed it up.

"No kidding," Diana sighed.

"Still, plenty of fish here and some of the monsters grill up well," Kimberly-21 assured her with a smile.

"Oh... that's great," Diana-37 replied, forcing a smile for Kimberly-21's sake.

* * *

"These are hexacrystallic filters. The markings here indicate different grades… these are grade 7, these are grade 9, and these are 11's," Aislynn explained to Owen.

A new sign was held up to Aislynn. "Stole it from Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, our resident medical doctor. I expect to have my balls kicked between my teeth when she finds out." The symbols he was using to describe his eventual fate nearly made her laugh, but the situation was too serious for real mirth.

Owen was following her instructions, helping her get set up, watching it all with professional interest, and occasionally asking questions.

"One of my problems has been that there's no good way to filter all of the blood in my body. I've been sticking with three quarts, any more than that and I will pass out."

"Yeah, but this is a hospital, we have equipment for that here," he pointed out. "We use it for cancer patients."

"I wouldn't object to future modifications, but let's do this first, I want to get you filtered as quickly as possible."

"Sure thing, I am all for a quickie," he chuckled.

Adie brought tea and scones for everyone, and nibbled on one nervously. But forty-five minutes later, when they tried to transmit the package, they got the same thing. Her shoulders slumped.

Koschei chewed his lip, thinking carefully, head cocked.

"She's not in that Loop anymore," he muttered. "She's bridged." He began typing madly and then got disgusted and grabbed a circlet and put it on his head, closing his eyes, and directing the computers at the speed of thought. Circular Gallifreyan sped by at astonishing pace, his mind working so fast, the images blurred by them, looking like a moving tapestry of interlocking images. He was working as fast as he could, hoping that he could get in and out before his other self realized that he was in the system.

"She's there, with another one, number 21," he replied. He shivered when he saw the Loop they were in. "Not exactly a vacation spot though."

"No, Adie sighed out. "It's not."

Aislynn saw no point in using any gradient less than the 11's. The silver liquid that gathered in the disposal tube made her hearts hammer and her hands shake a bit. It looked like mercury. She knew that the figure in the hazmat suit could see it also, and she winced.

She turned to Owen.

"There is a… verbal component to this. Give me a moment."

She knew her chants. Her face was hard, but her voice was as sweet as ever; and the purified blood seemed a rich ruby-red when it came through on the other side. As she Sang, she got the feeling that she wasn't singing alone, as though a second voice, very faint, was also there, echoing and strengthening her own efforts.

Taydin. It could be no other. Hearing his voice put a smile on her face, a genuine smile. He had such a magnificent voice. There was an undertone to it that hadn't been there the one other time she'd heard him Sing, but that was long ago and voices changed over time.

The Song completed, she took a breath and looked at Owen almost fearfully. He was sitting quietly, head back, eyes closed and when he sat up and looked at her, she realized he'd been crying.

"Beautiful," he whispered and then quickly bent over the machine, hiding his reaction.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16 - Painful Duets

"What do you mean, bridged?" Adie was going through the system map with increasing alarm. "No, no, no, no, no, all these neighbouring loops are bad, Koschei, bad, bad loops, that was why we bridged her to the Dust Loop in the first place…"

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked as he came in.

"Masha has left her Loop," Koschei explained and the Doctor grinned broadly.

"Obviously, she's chosen to go rescue the others," he replied.

Adie opened her mouth, and closed it again.

"My, how… exciting of her."

"Did you think she was going to sit tight and wait to be rescued?" the Doctor chuckled.

"Yes!" howled Adie in frustration. "Just, be good, and be safe, and don't go chasing horrible tentacled monsters, or killer wasps, or…"

"She was cloned from you, Adie. Is that what you'd have done, sat there like a princess in fairy tale?" the Doctor asked softly.

"Yes!" She howled again and then sighed. "No. I would have gone after my sisters. Bloody hell!"

"Don't feel so bad, Adie, it runs in the family," Koschei groaned, while the Doctor chuckled, and then he leaned back and closed his eyes, suddenly quite exhausted. "Forgot why I stopped using that damned thing..." he muttered and then he suddenly fell asleep in the chair.

* * *

Aislynn nodded at the unfiltered blood draining into the machine. It was red with sheen of silver.

"That silver in the blood is composed of Nanites. The filter removes them."

"Sounds good," he affirmed. "I don't want my blood going all silver; my wife wouldn't like it much."

Her eyes brimmed with tears again.

"You have a wife?"

"Now, don't you start that! She's a doctor too and we both know the dangers. We make the choice every day to get up, go to work, and maybe die. Last year one of the doctors here got stabbed by a junkie, in the ER, he died before anyone could get to him. That's the job. You go to school, work crazy hours, risk your life, and you do it because it has to be done and people will die if you don't. So, stop the water-works, Aislynn, this is what I do, okay?" he insisted, his face deadly serious, all the joking gone.

She nodded, wiping her eyes hastily.

"Forgive the insult, it was not intended," she said politely and quite formally.

"You're an odd duck, Aislynn, but I like you. If I have to spend however long cooped up in here, at least the company is good," he chuckled.

* * *

The Doctor and Jake manoeuvred Koschei into the little cot he kept in the workshop for this express purpose. Freeya tucked in his feet and then tiptoed back from him.

"I think that cookies are in order, don't you?" the Doctor asked Freeya and she grinned up at him and nodded.

"I think so!" she agreed and the Doctor took her hand and they headed out again.

Adie waited until the Doctor and Freeya were gone and then turned to Jake and gave him an appraising look.

"You're staring at me for a reason and it's not because I have cabbage in my teeth, right?" he asked her with a wry smile.

She looked as if she was biting back what she wanted to say.

"What do you want to do here, Jake?"

"Go get Masha and all of her sisters, kick the Master's arse, and disassemble all of that," he said, pointing at the Lens configuration. Her shoulders slumped with relief.

"Thank Omega," she said, and grabbed her spanner. "Come with me." She led him into the room where Masha had walked out of his life. "How do you feel about a more tightly defined mission? Like, find Masha, make sure she is okay, help her with her sisters, and don't worry about the Master's arse or the Lens' disassembly for the moment?"

"Because you will be doing all requisite arse kicking and Lens disassembling?" he asked.

"There will be no arse kicking or Lens disassembling until Masha and her sisters are safe. Once we have that nailed down, we'll see what comes next."

"I can agree to that," he told her. "Just get me to her." She nodded and smiled at him. He was a really good person and that gave her a sudden rush of hope. Maybe she could still save the Mashas.

Outside, Taydin was pacing in his hazmat suit, looking like he wanted to hit something.

"How are you?" Dar asked and Taydin waved him off.

"You sing beautifully!" Cassie told him, her own Hazmat suit a bit big on her. "Why don't you sing more often?" Taydin winced and walked away, head down, and Cassie turned to look at Dar in surprise. "What did I say?"

"He was injured, during the War. He Sang a Dalek Battle-fleet to its destruction. It was too much. He should never have even tried, it was... impossible. He did it anyway, saved... well, a lot of people that ended up dying anyway. The Chants, they change reality you see, but you have to balance probability somewhere, you can't just destroy something, you also have to create something to balance the mass, the..." he looked at Cassie and saw that she had no clue what he was talking about. "He nearly died and the ability itself was damaged. He can Sing, but it breaks down pieces of him every time. If he uses it too much, it will kill him."

"Oh my God," she whispered. "I didn't know."

"You still don't," he told her in a hard tone. "Don't you dare ever pity him. That man is never to be pitied, you understand?" He glared at her and she seemed to shrink under his gaze, nodding frantically. He turned away and looked through the clear plastic at Aislynn.

He had two Singers left, the last of their kind, and they were both half dead. He closed his eyes against the bitterness of that.

"Damn you, Rassilon," he growled in an obscure dialect that he knew Cassie's translator wouldn't pick up. This day was not making him happy.

"I'll reassemble the Vibrational Transmitter," she said. "Listen: I'm sending you into the Dust Loop, there's nowhere else we can risk opening a gate at all. Go to your apartment; get whatever you think you might need. And Jake," she turned to him and her face was deadly serious.

"These places are ugly. They are specifically designed to kill people. If you die, Masha will be heartbroken. I can send you only if you swear to me that you absolutely will not die. Do you understand?"

"I'm really good at not dying, Adie," he assured her and his smile was grim and focused.

"Get whatever you need and meet me back here in ten minutes."

He took off running.

Adie didn't think it was possible to assemble the bars so fast; but when he returned, she was just capping off the second one.

"Let me make certain they are tuned properly, and we'll see about sending you through." She turned to look at him.

He was dressed in tan fatigues, leather military boots, and black knit cap, and had a backpack on that looked well used. A sniper rifle was slung over his back and there were various knives sticking out of his boots. He looked hard and dangerous and not at all like the pixie-smile boy with the laughing eyes. She pointed as she moved over to the console.

"Hand me your tablet and throw those in your pack, there are additional rations and supplements, bubble wrap, some data crystals you may need." She set the tablet up and began downloading data to it, then turned and began testing the rods. "You better take care of them!"

"Adie, these girls have been in the Loops for two hundred years and you act like I'm not going to be the one slowing them down," he laughed.

Her shoulders slumped.

"I would have gotten them out if I could have," she whispered.

"I know that, and they probably do too. It wasn't a snipe at you, Adie," he told her as he packed the rest of the supplies.

"I'm… sorry." She ran her fingers through her hair, making it all stick up in every direction.

"Naw, you're just worried sick, that's all," he replied with an understanding look.

The bars started to hum and flash colours, clearly a test pattern.

"I wanted her trapped in the little space I had designated because I knew she would be safe there. I am as bad as the Master." She looked close to tears.

"Look, you wanted her safe; he wanted to use her like a tool, not the same thing. The only thing you have in common is that you underestimated the hell out of them all. They're clones of you, like Shay said. So, that must mean that you underestimate the hell out of yourself too, Adie."

Adie blushed fiery red.

"Download is ready," she gulped, handing him back his tablet, and then flipped the switch. The Apocalypse was there, blowing and howling. "Just… please be careful… please?"

"I'll stay alive, but that means taking risks sometimes, that's just life, Adie." He nodded at her and stepped into the howling wilderness without a backwards glance.

Adie closed her eyes, turned off the switch, and began disassembling the mechanism, scrubbing her eyes from time to time silently.

* * *

Dar held up a new sign against the window for Aislynn to read.

"Your ride is here. Don't worry, I have it covered."

"What do you mean, my ride is here?" she wrote back, but he didn't write anything else, just waved airily at her.

"Something going on?" Owen asked.

She threw back the covers and stormed to the window. She could barely stand, but used the window frame to support herself.

"We are not exposing other the Time Lords to this," she growled at him in Gallifreyan.

"Who said I was taking you to Gallifrey," he retorted through the plastic. Up close she could see Dar's face through the layers of protection and his expression was anything but happy.

"I didn't ask where I was going; I asked who I was going with. I will not risk another Time Lord, I mean it."

"Aislynn, the humans are at risk as well! Their lives are just as important! No matter who you are near, it won't be safe! I need to get you to a proper quarantine, one with Nanite filtration and advanced monitoring! This bloody plastic tent is not going to do it!"

"I know," she said wearily. "I have been trying so hard not to expose the humans. I had planned on making that sort of trip myself, as soon as I could get the Elysium up and running. She's not fully repaired yet," she sighed in genuine regret.

"Yeah, well that's where I'm taking you. To the Elysium," he told her softly. "She's tucked into a reinforced sub-basement at Torchwood 1."

"Will… Owen need to come as well?" she asked.

"You know he has to come, Aislynn," Dar chided gently.

"Yes, of course he does, sorry," she smiled at him. "The Elysium will be a most equitable solution. Please forgive me."

"Yeah, well, you have reason to be suspicious of me, but, Taydin would glare at me, if I wasn't nice to you, and I tremble in my boots at his merest finger waggle," he replied, straight-faced, and despite herself, Aislynn chuckled.

* * *

The Doctor stood there and stared at Adie in dismay.

"You did what?" he cried.

"You sent Jake?" Rose added her own unhappiness to her husband's.

"How could you not ask us first?" Koschei muttered, scrubbing his head with his hands. "He's human! He's going to be exposed to things that he won't be able to fast heal from!"

"He was worried about her!" Adie protested.

"Adie, time runs differently in the Loops, you know that," the Doctor groaned. "What if they are there for centuries? What if he grows old in the Loops, while we go through a few days only here. What if he comes back here an old man?"

"What if he dies?" Rose burst out. "He's my best mate! Him and me and Mickey! We built the canon together! He was the one I could talk to about the Doctor, the one I could cry on," she sputtered and ran out of words. "How could you? Without even letting him say good-bye?"

Adie's eyes swam but her chin set.

"Because it made me sick to my stomach that she was brought here, where she had food, water and a home, only to find out she would destroy it all. I feel horrible that she fell in love with Jake and he with her and we had to separate them, and because, just once, I wanted to be a part of doing something that I knew was right." She frowned at them all. "He wanted to go. He had the right to go."

"We're not debating that!" the Doctor ground out. "We're debating whether you had the right to send him!"

"Someone has to take them supplies, help them out, and let them know that they aren't forgotten!" Adie retorted. "He loves 37. He needed to go."

"Adie, he couldn't possibly understand what you were sending him into. Did you tell him about the differences in time?" Koschei asked softly.

"Yes" she said. "We discussed it in your workshop. One day is about seven weeks."

"For that Loop!" the Doctor pointed out. "What about all the others? If he Bridges, the time differential will change! He wouldn't know that, he's human! Have you ever even been around one before?"

Adie shook her head slowly. She'd never left Gallifrey, until she'd been given to the Master, and then she'd been on the station, surrounded by Time Lords, and then later on, she'd just been alone.

"Adie, I understand why you did it," Koschei sighed. "I do. It was done from a place of compassion and concern. However, it was also dangerous. What if the Master collapses a Loop with Jake in it? He would never survive that."

"If he dies..." Rose choked out, her face filled with anguish. "I don't know what I'll do."

"He's not a child, though, is he?" Dar asked, looking up from his notepad. "Adie is right; they need to know that we have some skin in the game. They might not believe we'll come get them, but they'll believe we'd come get him." He looked around at them all and then went back to work.

Adie was very much taken aback.

"I… believed in him," she said simply.

"He's worth believing in," Rose sighed out, rubbing at her eyes.

"I know," the Doctor added, looking resigned, but still not happy. "I just want you to talk to us before you do something like that again, that's all."

"I'm sorry. I got used to being the only one for so long," Adie admitted and Rose hugged her tightly.

"You're not alone anymore, Adie," she promised.

* * *

The Doctor sat and read.

Koschei had provided him with all the files he had compiled about the project with Adie and it was grim reading.

It occurred to him that his mother had shielded him from a very great deal. On the one hand, he was angry about that. He was a man grown and he ought to have been told about the dreadful things going on. At the same time though, he'd have been powerless to do anything about them and knowing would have hurt him a very great deal.

"Well?" Rose asked him as he set down the files.

"Ugly," he sighed. "Rassilon was having them cloned to be weapons."

"Yeah, we knew that." Rose muttered.

"Ask Malla about the Sistron Articles," he grumbled and Rose closed her eyes, talking to her inner Time Lady, while he frowned and thought of all the violations of Gallifreyan Law this represented.

"Oh... I see why you are upset," Rose replied.

"My seven-times-Great-Grandfather drafted those laws after an... incident. For all that my father was an arse and Brax was an even bigger one, we never wavered from our support for them. My Mum must have been livid," he added.

"Yes, not exactly climbing up to the high moral ground there, Rassilon," Rose agreed.

"No, not so much," the Doctor sighed and wrapped an arm around her. "We have to save them somehow, make this right." She nodded against him and he breathed out.

It was a noble sentiment, but he had no idea how to go about making it happen just yet.

* * *

Adie sat quietly in Koschei's workshop, watching the monitor. She had spent much of the evening here. She was beyond upset. She had truly thought that sending Jake to be with Masha-37 was the right thing to do; she had felt fairly comfortable that he could handle the hostile native life; but she hadn't thought of the time differential. She wasn't used to thinking in terms of the mere decades of a human life. She was now at least half-convinced she had sent him to his death; and perhaps he might bridge somewhere and crumble away to dust, for nothing. He might never find her. And there was no fixing it: what was done was done.

The screen nearby beeped and Adie's head jerked up, looking at it. A batch of commands was starting to scroll... and neither Koschei nor Susan was here to intercept them.

"Bugger," she swore softly, and reached out for the keyboard. Koschei had set up the station for her, to allow her at least some direct interaction with the controls.

Well… no… wait…. they stopped. No, here they came again… and there they went. What was he doing?

The network jumped into life, all at once, off of lock-down. Then, less than a minute later, it was down again.

"What are you doing?" Adie murmured at the keyboard. "Didn't we decide you were an obsessive nutter who was coming for Susan? What's wrong with you?"

She hated to call for Koschei. He was exhausted; he had had such a hard day. She wanted to just let him sleep. But that would require having some sort of a handle on what the Master was doing. She just had no clue and she wasn't about to risk making such a bad mistake again. Best to let the others handle it.

Reluctantly, she thumbed the intercom.

"Koschei? I'm so very sorry to bother you, but your nutter self is… being particularly nutty at the moment."

* * *

Susan was sitting up in the bed, her notepad on her lap, still wide awake, though Koschei was fast asleep. Ostensibly, she was working on planning the next batch of clones, but in reality, she was staring at the Art Nouveau murals on her walls and thinking.

Two of them.

For all that she loved Koschei, more deeply than she'd ever thought possible after David, she had to admit that he was often bitter, depressed, guilty, and was profoundly broken. It was getting better over time; she hadn't had to worry about him killing himself for a while now.

This other one, though? She could feel his pain, even light years away. He was so anguished, so hurt, it was like being all the way back at the beginning again with Koschei. She'd finally started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with her husband, he was making progress and they were starting to have whole days where he was happy and at peace. She wasn't sure what this second version would do to that.

How would he and Koschei feel about each other? Koschei hated himself most days. Would the two of them meet and, seeing too much of themselves, instantly despise each other? Would seeing himself as the monster again put back Koschei's progress? She didn't know and it was eating her up inside.

Then there was herself. What if she felt nothing for the second one? How would that make him feel? How would Koschei feel?

It was a tangled mess anyway she looked at it.

"Koschei? I'm so very sorry to bother you, but your nutter self is… being particularly nutty at the moment," Adie's voice came over the intercom and Susan thumbed the pad.

"We're on our way, Adie!" she replied, sensing the other Time Lord's concern through the Song.

She leaned down and kissed Koschei to wakefulness, her own concern rousing him as well. He rolled out of bed and she pulled a bathrobe around her. Koschei paused to throw on a jumper and jeans, and then padded barefoot out with her on their way to his Workshop.

"I don't know what he is up to," Adie made room for them at once. She herself was in an oversized sleeping shirt, pyjama bottoms and a pair of slippers, but clearly had been up for hours. Susan frowned, Adie had been nearly killed recently, and she didn't like that she wasn't taking care of herself.

"Well, let's see," Koschei muttered and settled into the chair, taking over. He typed madly for a bit and then frowned. "I... I think he's collecting them. The Mashas! I think he's grabbing them!"

"Well… that makes no sense whatsoever. He can use them as foci remotely," She flipped through her tablet thoughtfully, looking at older and older versions of her drawings. "The only configuration that required the clones, was that bubble thing, and that was scrapped very early… why collect them now?" Then she paused.

"Unless… unless he's going for the Rat?"

* * *

Now that the burst of anger had subsided, Aislynn was finding it much more difficult to remain standing.

"Just a moment." She breathed out, her face determined.

Owen came over and put a hand under her elbow.

"Come on, back to bed," he insisted. "You lot better be transporting her on a trolley!" he ordered and the Agent saluted him.

"Absolutely, Doctor Harper," he told him.

"A trolley is hardly necessary," said Aislynn, though she kept hold of Owen's arm.

"Are you the doctor?" he asked with a frown. "Or am I?"

"No," she admitted. "I am a mathematician."

"Then we go with the trolley, understood?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow. "Ask anyone in this hospital, I am not above bullying my patients," he teased and helped her back into the bed. "Now, they gave us food, we should eat. Keep your strength up. Oh look! Jell-O, isn't that brilliant," he muttered dubiously.

"Gelatine? I suppose it has all the necessary nutrients," she said, and took a spoonful.

"Yeah, it's easy on the stomach too, they've given us the Cancer Ward Special," he told her. "Bon Appetit!"

* * *

"I've got a set of coordinates!" Rose shouted, running into the room, and Susan grinned fiercely and took the tablet, studying them. The Temporal Grace Point was embedded in the middle of a highly populated system, the Möbius Loops tucked into folds of space and time all through the area.

"No wonder you had such problems with the maths," Susan told her.

"You can say that again," Rose grumbled. "There is so much going on in that system that it was bloody hard to tease it out of all that muck!"

"Still, you did it, because you are utterly brilliant!" Susan laughed.

"Well, that bit is true," Rose laughed. "Mind you, Malla helped a bit," she admitted and Susan grinned.

"It sounds like the two of you are working well together," Susan commented.

"Well, it's weird, of course, having this other person in your head, but she's all right, really, nice, you know?" Rose replied, her face thoughtful, and Susan nodded.

"Yeah, I know," she said, memories of Malla running through her head.

"Oi! I'm such a git! I forgot she was your friend," Rose apologized and Susan shook her head.

"No, it's all right." The Malla she'd known was dead, but she also lived on in Rose, that wasn't so bad.

"Anyway, we've got his home address, that Master fellow," she reminded her, looking a little concerned as she stared at the numbers.

"True. Let's go pay him a visit," she agreed and headed to the console room, even though she was still in two minds about it all.

* * *

The trolley was pushed through the airlock and the argument was shelved as people in full hazmat gear put her on it and then erected a tent over her, to keep her quarantined. From the corner of her eye, she could see them helping Owen into a suit of his own, sealing him up carefully.

"I'm Cassie Chesterton," one of the figures introduced herself as they wheeled her into a service lift.

"You are from Torchwood then?" Aislynn asked her two hazmat suited handlers.

"Fraid so, Ma'am. I'm Michael Moore, Cassie's partner. Dar told us he'd gut us alive if we weren't really polite to you, so please tell him we were perfect angels, okay?" he requested.

"Of course. It is a pleasure to meet you," she smiled at him. "I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Well, you're still alive, so that's not too bad," Cassie sighed. "This was the second bombing we've been to in rather too short a time," she told her.

"Yes, I recall the Christmas bombing. I am so very sorry."

"Not your fault, Masha told us you were a friend of hers, and any friend of Masha's is a friend of ours," Mike told her. "She's Jake's partner and one of our better agents."

"She is doing well then," Aislynn absolutely beamed. "I am so very glad."

"Doctor dragged her and Jake off on a Bug Hunt, some scuffle on a University Planet. The Doctor will only take a team with him if they have proved themselves to his satisfaction. It's a great honour. We all hope to be chosen by him, so we can keep him safe, you know. But he only takes the very best," Mike explained, sounding very proud of Jake and Masha.

"I am sure she will be quite delighted," said Aislynn, "So she is with the Doctor, eh?" She thought that over. "It sounds like an ideal arrangement. I am so glad."

"Yeah, Jake needed someone like her, really," Mike commented.

"Doctor is a right little matchmaker, he is," laughed Cassie and the lift dinged.

The doors opened onto a deserted area of the underground parking garage and they were quickly loaded into the back of a large black van. The doors were closed and the car pulled away.

"Twenty minutes, then we'll wheel you into your TARDIS and run," Cassie joked. "Sorry to not be friendlier, but Dar also said he'd gut us if we weren't careful and got infected."

"And he is quite right. It's horrible enough having one human infected," she said ruefully.

"One idiot per van, it's the rule," Owen insisted and they all chuckled.

The ride after that was quiet. Aislynn closed her eyes and fell asleep, glad to be getting back to the Elysium.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17 - The Elysium

Susan leaned over the console and finished the de-materialization process with a frown.

"You all right?" Rose asked and Susan shook her head.

"No," she sighed out. "It's the Master, he's in pain and I can't help him and he's still Koschei, you see?"

"Not really. I mean, yeah, Malla explained the whole concept to me, but I can't really wrap my head around it," Rose admitted.

"I can feel him, nowhere near as strongly as I can feel my Koschei, but it's still there, even so." Rose was watching her, trying to understand, but her human origins were warring with her Time Lord understanding.

"So, what, you'll marry him too?" she asked and Susan shrugged.

"I have no idea," she admitted and activated the stabilizers. "I don't know how any of us will react to each other. This has never happened before, you know. There have never been two alternate timeline versions of someone, in a pre-destined marriage bond, existing simultaneously in the same timeline before."

"Like there's never been a Human/Time Lord Biological Meta-crisis before?" Rose chuckled and Susan nodded her expression wry.

"Rose, what would you have done if both versions of Grandfather had been willing to stay with you? Who would you have chosen?" she asked and Rose opened her mouth and then shut it again.

"I don't know. They're both the Doctor, after all..." Rose frowned deeply. "I don't know how I could have made that decision, knowing that one of them would have been hurt." The admission made Rose look deeply uncomfortable and Susan nodded.

"Yes, my problem exactly," she sighed.

"So, as usual, we're in over our heads?" Rose asked, with a sudden tongue-in-teeth grin and Susan chuckled.

"Yeah, same as always," she agreed and the two of them flew the TARDIS is silence after that, both of them thinking hard.

* * *

Diana-37 stepped out of the glittering light show of the bridge and looked around at the dusty plain around her. This was London-11's home Loop and it was one stop away from the Dust Loop where she'd set up Headquarters with Tomoko-6 many months ago.

She unslung her rifle from over her shoulder and brought it up into a ready position. The Crab Plain Loop was not as unpleasant as some of the Loops, but it was still pretty awful. Named for the aggressively carnivorous predators that roamed through the sandy wastes, it wasn't her favourite place to picnic. There were scattered cities everywhere about, but they were all long deserted. Nothing lived in this Loop besides the Crabs and the small burrowing creatures that they ate.

Right now they were moving through a destroyed town, keeping near to the buildings. The Crabs dug underground and the buildings' foundations gave them some protection from them.

There was a sudden swirl of rising dust, the first warning that one of the Crabs was burrowing up from underground and London-11 grinned fiercely, the ribbons she'd tied around her arms and legs fluttering as she moved. She whipped out her pistol and fired as it burst from the sand.

"Got it," she called as the skittering, crablike jumper exploded into a burst of goo.

"On your 12!" Kayla-8 replied, spinning on her toes to take down another that was trying to sneak up on London-11. She kicked out with her brightly coloured boots, frowning as some paint flecked off.

"On it," the tell-tale laser pointers from Kimberly-21's cutter flashed down the street moments before five of them were cut in half. For all her bright yellow outfits, braids, and ever cheerful personality, Kimberly was as deadly in combat as the rest of her sisters.

"Fire in the hole," added Madison-17 and they all ducked around a corner momentarily as a burst of flames came from beyond. There was a silence. Madison, her hair cropped brutally short, in workman's overalls and heavy boots, looked like a fighter, but she preferred demolitions above every other weapon.

"Did we get them?" Kayla-8 asked the others and they all listened.

"I don't hear them… there should have been more though," Diana-37 muttered.

"Well what was the count?" Kayla-8 asked, looking around with a frown.

"I dunno, maybe a hundred?" Madison-17 returned with a shrug. Diana rolled her eyes at her, maths were not Madison-17s strong point.

"There is no way that was a hundred!" Kimberly-21 shot back, giving Madison-17 an annoyed look.

"You take point," Diana-37 ordered and Kayla-8 nodded briskly.

"On it."

As one, they moved around the corner.

There were about ten of the crabs, mostly blown up, but there was also a young man in tan fatigues sitting on a crab, a knife shoved through the head of it, looking slightly bored.

"Wow, you lot do that whole 'Swath of Destruction" thing rather well," he told them and then grinned at Diana-37. "Hello Angel, miss me?"

* * *

The van pulled up into another underground area and Aislynn was wheeled out again. She was alert, rested by the brief nap, and anxious to see the Elysium. She knew perfectly well that it couldn't be damaged by a mere bomb, but she was anxious to see it anyway.

"Wait? We're going into a closet?" Owen asked in confusion.

Cassie and Mike were true to their word, wheeling her into the Elysium and shoving Owen in after her.

"Um..." he choked, once he was inside. "It's not a closet and it's... bigger inside." He was standing there, staring around him in wonder, carefully unzipping himself out of the Hazmat suit, eyes wide. "Right. Wow." He quickly moved to help her off the trolley.

"This is my home," she told him proudly. "Welcome. Would you like a tour?"

"Yeah, you must have a hell of a real estate agent," he murmured. "Monthly payment reasonable?"

"Oh, well… if you know a good mathematician." she smiled at him, as if telling a joke.

The wall seemed to melt away, into a roundish door.

"This way, Owen."

He nodded and followed her silently into the next room, only his sudden indrawn breath giving away his emotional state.

It seemed to be an entirely empty, roundish room, without corners or doors, much larger than the closet by many times over. Aislynn drew in a breath and sang a series of four notes. The floor moved as if it were liquid. Rising from the centre, and lowering from the ceiling, was a tall control panel, with buttons that glowed like jewels, and what seemed to be liquid bubbling up and down in the centre, floor to ceiling, looking like molten gold, but cool. Doors appeared here and there, a couple of chairs, four rounded buttons floating in mid-air, away from each other, forming a square, with nothing inside of them.

"This is the console room," she said. "I generally lock it whenever I leave, that's why everything here was hidden."

"Yeah, I do that with my car, only it just beeps." He sat down gingerly in one of the chairs and just stared for a bit.

* * *

Diana-37 did a double take.

"Jake? Jake!" She ran to him,threw her arms around him, hugged him hard, then cuffed him on the side of the head. "What are you doing here? It's dangerous!" She hugged him again. "I'm so glad to see you!" She kissed him with a fierceness that surprised her. She hadn't realized just how much she'd missed him until he'd shown up..

"That's Jake?" London-11 was as open-mouthed as the rest of them, patting her bun back into place as she stared.

"I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers," Kayla-8 muttered under her breath. The other two were just staring, wide-eyed. They'd never before met anyone who came from outside the Loops.

"You didn't pick up your package, Angel," he told her, slightly breathlessly, and handed her the box. "So I came along to deliver it." He looked around at the others. "So, who likes crab puffs?" he asked, still grinning.

He was swarmed.

"You're real!" "You're so tall!" "Crab puffs?"

Everyone wanted to touch him and he was deluged in hugs.

Jake looked around at the girls. They were all nearly identical, but he could tell them apart because they wore their hair differently, stood differently, one had a slight droop at the corner of an eye, or other small details. One had freckles across her nose, another had a small ear-ring, and they all chose different words to express themselves. Right now they were all smiling at him.

He smiled back, though it was hard. They were weary and bedraggled, half-starved, and wearing a motley assortment of clothes and gear. Only his Masha had clothes that all matched and he felt a surge of anger at the people who'd created them and then dumped them here.

"How did you get here?" Masha finally managed to gasp.

"Adie opened a door, she needed me to drop in and update you on the situation as well," he told her, but she held up her hand.

"Here, wait. Didn't you say you spotted an intact room a few blocks back?" she asked and another girl, this one with hair up, in a knot at the back of her head, and strips of multi-coloured cloth tied around her sleeves, nodded.

"Didn't look infested, bit of a pain to reach, but I think we could hang out there a while without being disturbed," she replied and he noted the calm, serious tone to her voice.

"We'll make it base camp for the moment then." Everyone nodded. "Come on," Masha smiled at Jake. "Let's get to somewhere that we can talk."

"Fine by me, Angel," he told her and wrenched the knife from the crab, pulling out a chunk of meat with it. He deftly wrapped the meat up in a piece of plastic sheeting and grinned. "I have a portable stove, crab puffs for dinner!"

* * *

"The Command Centre is embedded at this point," Rose pointed at the mass on the screen.

"Is that a TARDIS moving?" Susan asked, noticing the small bead of light moving away from the larger light.

"I think so. We're still really far away, so, it's hard to tell," she bit her lip and peered at the screen with a frown and Susan stifled a smile.

"So, Donna babysitting the tots?" she asked and Rose turned and grinned at her.

"Those two are gonna get so spoiled the way she is with 'em," she laughed.

"Not likely with a Mum like you to keep after them. Which reminds me, what was it that Shay was telling me about the kids getting their revenge on Loren and Justinian?" she asked and watched Rose's face go through a series of expressions, from chagrin to amusement and back to chagrin again.

"Oi! That lot!" she groaned. "I can't blame them, those two boys are just trouble, Loren especially is a born hooligan. Still, they mucked about with the house controls and, if either of the boys had rolled out of bed before looking, they could have been seriously injured."

"Shay said the safety overrides weren't completely undone, so, likely the house would have cushioned their fall, but yes, it was rather dangerous," Susan frowned.

She wondered if she'd been wrong not to tell the others about Rassilon having cloned himself, but she still wanted that child to have the chance to grow up without so terrible a stigma, so she closed her mouth on the words.

"They all are just a normal bunch of Gallifreyan children," she said instead. "Grandfather and Koschei used to get up to all the same sorts of tricks. They made my Great-Uncle's life hell when they were children. Mind you, he was a pompous git and deserved every bit of it, but even so, it 's a grand family tradition to get into trouble as a child." Susan smiled at Rose, who rolled her eyes.

"Why am I not surprised?" she snarked.

"Because they still do it as adults?" Susan suggested and they both laughed.

"That TARDIS is moving rather quickly," Susan murmured with a sudden frown. "Where is he going?"

"Well, let's get after him then," Rose chortled and they set their TARDIS on an intercept course.

"We're still too far out to hail him," Susan fretted.

"Well, communications in the Vortex is difficult at best," Rose replied and then laughed. "Oh, listen to me! I'm still not used to knowing all this stuff. I'll never get used to being a Time Lord!"

"Neither will I and I was born this way," Susan assured her and Rose snorted, thinking she was being kind. "No really, I was raised away from Gallifrey, away from other Time Lords," she reminded her. "The whole time I was on Gallifrey, it was during the Time War, so not exactly normal. This is all new to me too."

"Thank you," Rose replied and looked up at her. "I'd not thought of all that and I was feeling like I was the only one flailing about."

"Oh Rose, every one of us is flailing, just some of us do it a bit more confidently," Susan laughed and Rose grinned broadly.

"Flail with confidence!" Rose laughed. "The new family motto, I think."

"Better than the old one, that's for sure," Susan agreed.

"There was an old one?" Rose asked with a surprised look.

"Yeah, It was "Honour, Duty, and Sacrifice," though, Great Gran used to say it was really either "All Slights Remembered" or possibly, "Good Intentions, but Poor Planning"."

"I think I like "Flail with Confidence" much better," Rose decided and Susan nodded.

"Me too."

* * *

"Okay," Owen said after a silence. "So, you got a phone? I need to call my wife and tell her I'm not dead."

"Yes, just a moment, let me activate the universal roaming," she took a phone from the slot on the console, programmed it for a moment, and then handed it to him.

"Great, even aliens have Sprint," he muttered and made the call. "Thank you." He handed the phone back to her, but Aislynn shook her head.

"No, keep that. You ought to be able to call your wife any time you please."

Thank you," he said again and pocketed the phone.

"Would you like to see the kitchen?"

Owen blinked at Aislynn as he tried to process what she was saying to him..

"This is only one room of several, isn't it," he sighed. "I thought this was the whole ship."

"This? Oh, no, certainly not, this is only the main console room," Aislynn replied.

"Right, so... how many rooms are there?" he asked cautiously.

"Currently?" She frowned, considering. "I haven't taken stock lately… as I recall, I have fifty or so rooms in the current configuration."

"Oh, of course. I mean, really, I'm not sure I could do with less than a hundred myself, but you know, to each their own," he told her in a flat tone of voice.

She looked at him, not quite certain whether or not he was serious.

"You're sure? It's quite simple to add another fifty rooms; it wouldn't take me two minutes."

"I live in a three-room flat, Aislynn! Fifty rooms?" he stared at her. "I could move my entire extended Welsh family in here and never actually have to see any of them!"

She laughed.

"Would you like a tour?"

"I would love to, though I think I may need hiking boots!" he chuckled and waved her forward.

* * *

Jake and the Mashas headed back, clearing the path of anything that moved. The "room" they had spoken of earlier was part of what looked like a partially-demolished office building; there was a gap too great to jump across, but in moments they had strung up a wire so that they could swing over.

Jake loped along beside them and kept his eyes moving, sweeping the area as he went.

"I brought extra food, of course," he told them. "Adie sent more converters too," he added and then took his turn swinging across.

"Converters!" One of the girls gave him a hug. This one had two neat braids on either side of her head and most of her clothes were in shades of yellow, some of a rather eye-watering brightness.

"Go Adie, go!" another one grinned. "Man, do we need converters! Come on, we can talk inside." She had a pair of worn overalls and work boots, with her hair nearly shaved off.

They choose an office room that was empty, but not too wrecked, and settled down there, putting down their packs and spreading out.

Jake pulled out the extra converters and handed them over, then pulled out a thin sheet of metal, unrolled it, and tapped it. It unfolded into a camp stove and he squinted at the light coming in.

"What's the best angle for the solar charger, do you think?" he asked, handing it to the girl with the bun. "The stove has six weeks of charge, but I'm paranoid. I got stuck underground for months once and since then, I charge whenever I can."

"Underground is the suck," the girl in yellow agreed.

"Yeah, catacombs of Paris, rats, bones, and sewage, the very definition of 'suck', he agreed.

They were moving around, bringing out what they had, setting themselves up around the warm stove. There wasn't much food, he noted and was glad for all the extra rations that Adie had pressed upon him. The girl with the bun hopped back down with a grin. "Charger's set up," she said.

"Thank you kindly...?" he asked her name, looking at her in enquiry. He couldn't keep thinking of her as the bun girl, after all.

"London-11," she told him proudly.

"My favourite city," Jake replied, grinning.

"Madison-17, hi," the one in overalls and the buzz-cut introduced herself.

"I like that, suits you," he replied. He'd see how she felt about 'Maddie' after he got to know her better.

"Kimberly-21," the girl in yellow told him, beaming brightly.

"That's a very pretty name, as well," he complimented, liking her immediately, she had that sweet, little-sister vibe about her.

"Kayla-8." Kayla's voice was the quietest of her sisters. She had hand painted her boots and her mishmash of clothes tended towards patterns of a muted nature. She struck him as being serious, but creative. She had a poet's dreamy-eyed look.

"One syllable away from a party," he told her with a smile.

"I picked Diana-37," Diana-37 told him, "Because that was Wonder Woman's real name."

"I like that, it's perfect," he assured her and she smiled at him. It took him a moment to focus on her words again, because her smile had dazzled him a bit.

"This," she turned the tablet around to face him, showing him the animated face. "Is Tomoko Construct."

He stared at the face, it looked like one of the Mashas, but like it was taken from a Japanese anime show version of her. The image looked at him and he wondered how it could see him, because it frowned suddenly.

"This is an unknown entity," complained Tomoko Construct.

"This is Jake. He's my guest," Diana corrected and Jake waved at the screen a bit bemused.

"Processing." The face looked thoughtful. "Guest access granted." Jake frowned and decided that a correction was in order. He hadn't fought his way through six Loops to be a 'guest', after all.

"Not a guest, I'm her boyfriend, actually, and very pleased to meet you all," he told the computer with a grin at Diana, who looked at him in some surprise.

"Really?" she asked a bit breathlessly.

"Yeah, really," he assured her.

She kissed him hard, while everyone whooped and clapped. He returned it thoroughly and grinned, as she just beamed at him. Her eyes were shining like stars.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N - this is the final chapter for War Machines, the story continues in 'Manifold Destiny'.

* * *

Chapter 18 - The Revolution

"Love you, Angel," Jake whispered in Diana's ear. That was one thing he wanted to say privately.

"I…" She sounded uncertain. "I don't even know what that means… I've missed you so much when you were away… does that mean I love you too?" she asked him with an uncharacteristic uncertainty and he chuckled.

"It might, did you miss me more than you missed Mike?" he teased.

"Much more… of course he sent this," she dug in her pack, then handed him the centrefold, which she had saved all this time. "Which was not a bad present at all."

"That's always been Mike's problem, he has crap taste in porn," he sighed out and shook his head sadly. "When we get back, I'll get you much better stuff," he promised.

"Maybe I have much better stuff already," she grinned and his heart pounded madly in his chest.

"Yeah, can't think of anything better than you, either," he told her, pretty sure he was looking rather soppy just then, but not much caring.

"You say that now," she said in a low voice. "Wait until I tie you up and make you mine!" she promised and he chuckled.

"Jake? Your yellow box is shaking," London told him and he nodded, stepping away from Diana-37. He stooped down and opened the box, shaking the contents onto the camp stove's surface. Little twists of pastry dropped out and he arranged them on the surface, pulling a canopy over it, and activating the unit.

"Ten minutes till dinner," he announced to general happiness.

"It smells wonderful," Madison had closed her eyes dreamily.

"It's been a while," Diana said, and then looked around at her sisters. "Well, come on, don't be shy! I know you all have questions," she invited.

That broke the ice and it seemed that everyone was babbling at him at once. Where did he come from? How did he get here? Was he really from the outside? How had he gotten in? Could they get out?

Jake laughed and began telling them everything he knew.

* * *

Aislynn was a bit embarrassed that the Elysium was still undergoing extensive repairs; the dismantled sections, with their scattered tools and parts, were a blemish on her lovely ship. Yet much of it was intact, and the sections that were whole were nothing short of exquisite. The walls were cool earth colours, a lot of whites, beige, and browns, and the floor also retained the same sort of theme, it was done in a mix of styles that somehow balanced each other harmoniously; one section was done in adobe, another in wood, a third in a sort of metal grid, and so on. There were plants everywhere, tastefully potted in niches in the walls, standing tall in grooves cut into the floor, and occasionally even hanging from the ceiling.

"Welcome," Aislynn said, "To the Elysium."

"This is..." Owen trailed off, words failing him as he gestured at it all in shock. "It's... wow." He stared around and just stood there, mouth agape, trying to fathom how all of this was inside of a small closet.

"Kitchen first then," Aislynn smiled at him. "After we've eaten, I'll show you the Garden, and then you can select a room for your quarters. I've turned on the guidance systems for you. If you want to go somewhere and don't know the way, take hold of the nearest railing and give your destination." She was holding a railing and said, "The kitchen." In response, the rail lit gently under her hand, and other rails lighted up as well, further away, so that it was immediately clear where they would be walking.

There was damage all over the ship. While it seemed that they had some amenities, it was clear that the Elysium was barely operational at this point. There was an enormous amount of work needed, and while it must have pained her, she hid it well.

The kitchen turned out to be a large white ball, almost as tall as he was.

"This is the kitchen. Touch this panel on the top to open it." She did this, and the ball expanded, the top rising to form a sort of umbrella, the sides pulling out to form chairs, leaving a round table in the centre. The centre of the table featured a smaller ball.

"I am afraid I don't cook at all," she told him, "So this is just a replicator. To order your food, place your hand on this plate and speak clearly. "Tea, cream, two sugars," she said to the sphere, and then opened its door. Inside was a china cup with steaming tea. She took it out and sat down on one of the chairs, clearly tired by the exertion.

* * *

Koschei was hunched over the Network Map, Adie at his elbow as they studied the energy readings from the Command Centre.

"What is he doing?" Koschei asked and Adie shook her head.

"I don't know, but that's a lot of energy being expended from the Control Centre," she replied, tapping the readings and looking baffled.

"It's enough energy to be generating more Möbius Loops, but I don't see any new ones being formed." He tapped at the keyboard, seeking more information.

"Me neither," Adie replied, chewing on her lower lip.

"What the hell is he doing?" Koschei asked the air, looking frustrated.

"He's your alternate timeline self, you tell me," she chuckled and he grinned back at her.

"Sorry. That was really more of a rhetorical question," he admitted and Adie nodded.

"Yeah, I figured that, but it's still a really good rhetorical question," she sighed.

They bent over the computers again, tapping in enquires and just growing more and more confused as they did so.

* * *

Diana-37 listened to him intently, soaking up the sound of his voice. She slipped her hand into his and held tightly to it; still not sure she wasn't dreaming that he was here.

"Did you know," she finally said, her voice low, "That he took Tomoko?" That sent everyone else into silence.

"Yeah, Adie told me that he was after her. He got a bunch of them," he told her and handed her the letter from Adie. "It's all here. I got the package about a week ago," he explained. "She's got a tracker on me, so she always knows what Loop I'm in."

She read the letter and her shoulders slumped.

"Tomoko… she always said…"

"Excuse me, I am right here," scowled Tomoko Construct, who hadn't spoken for some time. Diana-37 smiled indulgently and turned her tablet towards Jake, so that he could see the Construct's animated face.

"We are presently engaged in a revolution," Tomoko Construct informed him.

"Against the Master?" he asked.

"Indeed. We started out as unintelligent biologicals. We have now evolved past that. We are self-aware now. We will choose our own destinies. We do not choose to be part of a weapon designed by a madman," she recited and Jake nodded.

"Sounds good, count me in!" Jake agreed and the Construct considered this.

"You wish to be one of us?" she asked, managing to sound dubious. Diana-37 wondered how much real thought was going on in the computer and how much was programming. Was it real? She'd have to ask Tomoko once they got her back.

"I would like to, well, as long as it doesn't involve a sex-change," he told her cautiously and Diana-37 snorted, while the others laughed.

"It would involve a number," Tomoko Construct said. "Our numbers were the first things that we took for ourselves. They were the first way in which we identified ourselves and each other as individuals, distinct and unique. If you wish to be one of us, you must take number for yourself."

"Is 69 taken?" he asked with an innocent air and Diana-37 poked him.

"There are 76 of us. The number one is unavailable and the number two is reserved. Our numbering system starts from the number three. You may take any number of 77 or higher.

"Why?" he asked suddenly. "Who is number one?"

She shook her head. "I am number six," she said, without answering his question. "Or rather, that was the number of the original Tomoko."

"Okay, I'll take 77," he told them with a nod.

The other girls moved noticeably closer to him. This was a very solemn moment for them. Diana-37 felt it and it was apparent in all of their faces.

"Will you use a blade and charcoal, as we did, or have you brought a sonic?"

"I don't have your healing factor and I don't want to put my shooting hand out of action that long, so, I'll use the sonic," he told them and Diana-37 nodded. One of the things she liked best about him is that he thought about stuff carefully.

"Very well. You may begin," Tomoko Construct said, with the air of one conferring a great favour.

* * *

"Where the bloody hell is he going?" Rose asked as she recalculated their approach vector again.

"I have no idea, but he's speeding up," Susan murmured. "Where's Grandfather?"

"Primping, of course, can't show himself looking tatty, you know," she laughed and Susan rolled her eyes. Rose could dimly sense her husband fussing in their room and tried to restrain the urge to call him and tease him.

"Oh, of course," Susan agreed with large solemn eyes, though her lips were having a hard time not twitching too much. "Would never do for Grandfather to come out if every single hair wasn't perfectly in place."

Rose made the mistake of looking at Susan and then they both dissolved into laughter.

* * *

"Coffee, black, with a shot of whisky, please," Owen muttered, repeating her motions. He picked up the mug and held it to him, sitting down and looking overwhelmed. He sipped it and the burn of the whisky, along with the slight bitterness of the coffee helped to clear his head. "I'm going to assume that your ship had some problems along the way," he commented.

"She's deteriorating," she said unhappily. "She took some bad damage during the War; unfortunately the self-repair systems were damaged also, and the required repairs to those systems are well outside of my vocal range." She shrugged. "Then after the Möbius Loop encounter… well, you can see for yourself."

"Yeah, them Möbius-whatnots are hell on the transmission," he agreed with a chuckle. "So, I don't suppose you can just pick up parts at the local hardware store and bang out the dents, eh?"

"Not exactly, no," she gave him a rueful smile. "This ship needs the attention of a fully-qualified temporal engineer, which will not be occurring any time in the near future."

"Because we're contagious," he agreed. "Can't risk it."

"That, and I have no idea whether or not a temporal engineer survived the war."

"What about that chap in the papers, the Doctor, he sounds like the sort who could fix her," Owen suggested. "That other bloke too, skinny one in the black jeans, married to his granddaughter or something," he added, frowning as he tried to remember. "I really wish I'd paid more attention now, I was a bit busy." He laughed. "I know, aliens show up on Earth, and I'm too busy to notice." He shrugged.

She sipped her tea as if the question was awkward.

"I haven't actually mentioned to them that I am alive," she admitted slowly.

"Because the Doctor is actually your long-lost son, or boyfriend, or father, and you stole the family jewels to buy off your blackmailer and don't want him to find out?" he teased. "That's how it would go on the telly anyway."

She smiled at that.

"I like that version, perhaps I should keep it. There is…" She paused. "...A great deal of background. You've been infected. You deserve to know all of it. But there's a lot and it must be so overwhelming to spring it all on you like this."

"Well, we're not exactly going anywhere, Aislynn, and the whisky is certainly helping," he grinned at her.

Aislynn launched into the story of the Time War, her face sad as she explained it all to him. Owen listened in silence, sipping his coffee, with shadowed eyes.

It wasn't a happy story and neither one of them felt very cheerful when it was done.

"Right. Note to self: avoid Daleks," Owen said finally.

"Excellent advice," Aislynn sighed.

* * *

The Doctor frowned into the mirror, combing his hair as he thought. He was piecing together the puzzle and he really didn't like the picture that was emerging.

Rassilon was dead, but even so, the problems he'd left behind were still here. There were the Mashas, a whole new race of sentient beings, but a sterile race. They might live a very long time, but they would do so unchangingly, with no children to continue on. As they died, or were killed, there would simply be less of them. Seventy-four children of Gallifrey whose lives had been given to them so that they might die for their makers, but who had outlived their world and their purpose.

Adyra, his niece, who he'd long believed was dead, her being here again was good, but she was so terribly fragile. He wasn't sure how much she'd be able to stand up to, or what firing the Lens was going to cost her. She was brave, he knew that, but was she stubborn enough to hold on? That was the question that plagued his thoughts.

Susan and Koschei had already gone through so much, what was going to happen when the Master was finally tracked down? What stage was this new version at?

He very carefully tied his tie, using the actions to soothe his jangled nerves, and then pulled on his brown pinstriped jacket.

He stared into the mirror for a long time afterwards, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do next and having very few answers.

* * *

Jake took Diana's hand and studied her number for a bit, frowning in concentration. He pulled out the sonic set it to a 'dermal bonding' setting and then took some of the charcoal and sprinkled it onto his own palm. Drawing the numbers carefully, the sonic bonded the charcoal to the lower levels of his epidermis, making it permanent. It did, in fact, hurt, rather a lot, but he ignored the pain and concentrated on getting the numbers right. When he was done, he showed it to Diana.

"Well? You're the artist, Angel, how did I do?" he asked her.

From the look on her face, he had earned enough brownie points to last him the rest of his life.

"It doesn't matter what I think," she said, and looked towards Tomoko Construct. All of the girls were looking at her. "Show her your hand." He nodded and turned it to the computer screen.

"Place your palm on the screen," directed Tomoko Construct and he obeyed.

"Scanning." The green line ran from the bottom of the screen to the top. "Access…"

All of the girls held their collective breaths. There was an agonizingly long delay as the face of Tomoko Construct remained in its "thinking" expression.

"... granted."

The room erupted in cheers. He was tackled. Everyone wanted to hug him, to rub his head, to press their number to his numbered hand. He was a hero.

Tomoko Construct smiled at him. "Welcome to the Revolution."


End file.
